Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’ is already winning as England chases the FIFA World Cup final

Tonight in Atlanta, England play Argentina for a place in their first World Cup final since 1966. Whatever the scoreline, there's a decent chance the loudest moment of the night won't come from either team's fans chanting for their country. It'll come after the final whistle, when thousands of voices, English or otherwise, fall into the opening chords of a song written thirty years ago by two brothers from Manchester who were barely thinking about football at all.

Oasis' "Wonderwall" could make chart history this week, regardless of what happens tonight. The Official Singles Chart update on July 14 had it poised to jump nine places to Number 2, a position it's never held before at this stage of a chart run, trailing only Sam Fender and Olivia Dean's "Rein Me In". It would be the song's first ever shot at Number 1, thirty years after it first entered the charts and was famously kept off the top spot by Robson & Jerome.

More from Lifestyle

It started with a DJ

The whole thing began without anyone planning it. After England beat Croatia 4-2 in Dallas on June 17, the players walked over to thank their fans, and the stadium DJ, unscripted, dropped "Wonderwall" over the tannoy. It became one of those moments that instantly hardens into tradition. Harry Kane has since called it one of his favourite moments in an England shirt, and every win since has ended the same way, players and supporters facing each other, one arm around a teammate's or a stranger's shoulder.

The human collateral has been its own running joke. Kane sang so hard after the win over Mexico that he could barely speak in his post-match interview. Jordan Henderson managed to injure his wrist in a freak accident running over to join the singalong.

And "Wonderwall" hasn't been working alone. Whenever Jude Bellingham scores, which has been often, the crowd tends to follow it with "Hey Jude," the Beatles song that happens to share his first name. It's been a fixture through the tournament, not a one-off, and predates the World Cup entirely; Real Madrid fans have sung him the same song at the Bernabéu.

Writing atop a wonderwall

It's a fitting bit of layering, given how much Oasis themselves have always run on Beatles worship. "Wonderwall" borrowed its title from George Harrison, specifically Wonderwall Music, the soundtrack Harrison composed in 1968 for a little-seen psychedelic film of the same name, released as the first solo album by any Beatle and the first record on Apple's own label.

Noel Gallagher had the song written under the working title "Wishing Stone" before swapping it out once he landed on the Harrison connection, less because the title made obvious sense and more because it gave Oasis one more thread back to their idols.

Liam Gallagher, never one to stay quiet about anything involving his own back catalogue, has been narrating the whole run from the sidelines. Asked by a fan whether he'd fly out and perform live if England reached the final, his reply was characteristically economical: "We'll see, I'm ready."

Noel, for his part, has pointed to his years on the terraces at Maine Road watching Manchester City as part of what shaped his sense of a good singalong, the kind that doesn't need good voices, just enough people leaning into the same chorus at once. Which is, more or less, the exact thing happening in the stands right now.

A stadium full of chills

The reason this song works as well as it does isn't really about football at all. Wonderwall is not a pumped-up celebratory song. It doesn't ask anyone to be patriotic. Maybe that's why people cheering for the other team keep singing along too.

When sixty thousand people sing back a bittersweet refrain, "Maybe you're gonna be the one that saves me," it isn't really about winning. It's about being there together, in that specific moment, which the song has always captured better than most anthems do. Maybe it also helps that it drags along its own memories of college, of being the one song every mediocre guitarist has murdered at a party, even thirty years on, a punchline long before it was ever a chant. Somehow that history makes it feel like a truer chant now, not a lesser one.

Whether Wonderwall gets a Number 1 this week, whether England even make it past tonight to have a final worth singing at, none of that's decided yet. Thirty years after it first climbed the charts and got denied the top spot, the song is getting one more shot at its loudest night. Time will tell if this is the one it finally wins.