Sawt Falasteen - "I am from Bosnia" -- Bosnia's first World Cup success

With several million views across multiple platforms on Tuesday, the song, a reworked version of one of the local rock band Dubioza Kolektiv earlier hits, is emerging as one of the standout anthems of the tournament, which kicks off on June 11.

In the video released in late May, the musicians, dressed in yellow jerseys, are dribbling footballs, playing instruments and singing, while cevapi -- the traditional Balkan grilled meat dish -- sizzles on the barbecue.

"Our video, which must have cost six marks (three euros, $3.6) was filmed in the neighbourhood, in a way similar to a favela in Colombia or Brazil," Brano Jakubovic, the band's keyboardist and lyricist, said.

"People recognized that aesthetic that it is what football is actually about, a torn ball and a goal drawn on a wall, and poor (people) playing it," the 47-year-old told AFP.

The result was amazing -- more than one million views on YouTube, at least as many on Instagram, and the clip circulating around the world.

"We are present on social networks. But today, it's much harder to get a million clicks, likes, views ... than it was five or ten years ago," stressed the band's bassist Vedran Mujagic.

"So when a million people watch a video in seven days and people from all over the world are commenting, you feel happy".

The original song U.S.A., released in 2011, talked about how "Bosnians and other people from Eastern Europe migrate to America in search of a better life and the American dream", Jakubovic explained.

"At the end of the song, Bosnians return home because they realise the American dream no longer exists."

- 'Total madness' -

The chorus, "I am from Bosnia, Take me to America" took on new momentum in late March when Bosnia's squad qualified for the World Cup by eliminating Italy in a penalty shootout.

"It was total madness," Jakubovic recalled.

"The song was playing on repeat in front of I don't know how many tens of thousands of people" who gathered in Sarajevo to welcome the players after their victory in Zenica, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) northwest of the capital.

A few days later, the group decided to add a few verses in Bosnian to recall the "national collective trauma" from 2014.

Edin Dzeko's goal in their group game with Nigeria was ruled out due to offside, a decision the referee later admitted was wrong.

Nigeria won the match 1-0 and despite Bosnia beating Iran in the final group match it was the Nigerians not Bosnia who progressed to the knockout stages, having finished with one more point.

"Psychologists made a lot of money after that offside, and the pharmaceutical industry also profited, because all Bosnians switched to hard drugs," Jakubovic joked.

"And we had to somehow offer a way out for that trauma through the song."

Bosnia will play joint hosts Canada in their first Group B match on June 12 in Toronto and then face Switzerland and Qatar.

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B.Khalifa--SF-PST