News, News, News, News receives over 250,000,000 letters every week, employing an army of unpaid interns to sort through them and meticulously label and rank them based on how unhinged they reckon the sender is. As a favour to these interns, we allow them to keep the ones they deem most unhinged, and encourage them to spark friendships with the letter-writers, as a way of combating Britain's ever-growing loneliness epidemic.
This week's chosen letter comes from Anthony, from Hackney, London. He asks:
Dear NNNN,
Why is Freed From Desire by Italian singer Gala played at every major sporting event? The song is usually played at the climax of the tournament when the team lift the trophy. I find it peculiar, and a little bit jarring. I don't object to music, and I certainly don't object to sport in a philosophical sense. What I object to is a song with such a clearly-defined conceptual meaning, i.e being "freed from desire", being used for something where the desire to compete and succeed is very much a prerequisite.
A friend suggested to me the other day that all my anxieties were unfounded and the reason Freed From Desire is played so much is because fans love to say "Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na", I utterly refute this. Yes "Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na" is very enjoyable to sing, but the brief adrenalistic whirlwind people experience when singing this only serves to hide how damaging the underlying message of the song is to athletes striving for sporting excellence.
The first chorus goes:
"My love has got no money, he's got his strong beliefs"
"My love has got no power, he's got his strong beliefs"
"My love has got no fame, he's got his strong beliefs"
"My love has got no money, he's got his strong beliefs"
What I struggle to comprehend is how lyrics like this could be appealing for fans of football, in particular. The average Premier League footballer does have money, power and fame, and a lot of them have repeatedly shown they don't hold strong beliefs when it comes to political matters. If anything, their beliefs seem to be guided by the materialistic worship of money, power and fame, it's only in a scenario when they feel one of these things are threatened that they might develop so-called strong beliefs.
This chorus I find equally-concerning:
"Freed from desire, mind and senses purified"
"Freed from desire, mind and senses purified"
"Freed from desire, mind and senses purified"
I worry that if players' senses were literally purified, they'd lose the razor-sharp instincts they need to succeed on the field of play, being able to make split-second decisions and reacting to the positioning of opposition players. Purification would lead to stultification. Our minds need imperfect and challenging situations to grow and become more durable and respond to problems more efficiently. Playing this at the height of a tournament when a team has won a trophy is irresponsible and downright insulting to the athletes, showing a clear lack of foresight on behalf of the stadiums who continue to play this song.
I find the lyrics of this song eerily-hypnotic in their ability to lull the listener into a tranquil state of mindlessness, free from the senses and bereft of ambition. Athletes rely on ambition and intensity, there's nothing "pure" about these things, and if anything, athletes admit to feeling confined by their own ambition, with the sense of freedom only coming when they've already achieved the goal they used this ambition and intensity to achieve.
They're basically telling a group of high-level athletes that their work and toil means nothing, that what they should've been striving for all along was sensual purity and a life free from desire and want. This, as you can imagine, would be a hugely-distressing message to hear when you've just put your body through 90 minutes of physical exertion.
I hope the relevant authorities, whether that's Lisa Nandy, FIFA, or the FA look into this issue and find a more suitable song to play at such moments of collective bliss. I'm not prepared to see the next generation of British athletes lose that inner drive that pushes them to achieve incredible, virtuosic feats of athletic brilliance.
Yours sincerely,
Anthony
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