David Baddiel has announced that the Three Lions Christmas remake will pay tribute to the England Lionesses team for their outstanding Euro win this summer.
The 58-year-old comedian, who co-wrote the 1996 Britpop tribute to the England football team with Frank Skinner, has become the soundtrack to stadiums and pubs as fans cheer on an England victory at UEFA EURO 1996, played at home.
And after the Lionesses women’s team smashed a 2-1 win over Germany at Wembley Stadium to give England their first Euro win, Baddiel and Skinner decided to bring their big win to the iconic song.
Revealed: David Baddiel (pictured right with Frank Skinner) says the Three Lions Christmas remake will pay tribute to the England Lionesses team for their outstanding Euros win this summer
News of the re-recording as a Christmas release, titled “Three Lions On A Sleigh,” broke in September, but on Thursday’s The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X, David Toby Tarrant said the Lionesses had had an impact.
When asked if he wants to go to the Christmas markets for music, Baddiel said, “You know we did Three Lions Christmassy, you know that?”
Chris said, “I imagine it’s Three Lions with more sleigh bells,” but Baddiel replies, “It’s actually more than that.
“That was the original idea, Ian Brody – definitely a genius – me and Chris were like, ‘Well, should we do a Christmas thing’ because it’s December, the World Cup is in December.
Celebrating: The Lionesses team beat Germany 2-1 at Wembley which gave England their first Euro win (pictured Chloe Kelly, right, celebrates her winning goal with Jill Scott)
“But should we do it with sleigh bells, children’s choirs and all that? But me and Frank said, ‘Let’s rewrite it with some Christmassy comedy lyrics.
“And we also thought we would write about the lionesses’ victory.
“And that’s what we did, we shot the video the other day. What we did is – I don’t want to give too much away – but the first video that we shot in 1996.
“It’s a version of that, only much, much older.”
The anthem made a smashing comeback during the 2018 World Cup, where England reached the semi-finals, and became the first song in UK history to top four times during the tournament.
Formerly: The 58-year-old comedian, who wrote the Britpop tribute to the England football team with Frank Skinner in 1996, has become the soundtrack for England games (pictured filming a video for Three Lions)
And at the Women’s EURO final at Wembley in August, David Baddiel spoke of his pride in England’s Lionesses and the “beautiful” way it was sung from the stadium as the final was won.
Baddiel said he wondered if he’d ever heard the song – written with Frank Skinner and Ian Broudie – after winning a tournament.
And he said invading the team’s press conference to belt out the song in front of the waiting media perfectly embodied their spirit.
Baddiel thanked the Lionesses after the match and tweeted: “Home. In fact, it has come home. A sentence I thought I would never write. I went. Thank you lionesses.’
He told Radio 4 this morning: “It’s beautiful, it’s fantastic, it was beautiful to hear it sung from Wembley yesterday when we finally won a final.
Big win: At the Women’s EURO final at Wembley in August, David Baddiel spoke about his pride in England’s Lionesses and the ‘beautiful’ way it was sung from the stadium as the final was won (pictured left, captain Leah Williamson and Alex Greenwood after their win)
“I really thought that was never going to happen. It was so amazing to think “oh we won, that’s not going to happen”. It actually happened.
“Then the whole team comes into the press conference and anarchically interrupts the press conference by singing the song. It was so brilliant and so in the spirit of the Lionesses who are kind of happy and unbridled and playing brilliantly so yeah I was really happy about that.
The night before the finale, Baddiel and the Lightning Seeds performed a Lionesses version of the song at a gig in Camden.
It included the lyrics “And now I see Ellen White standing up, Russo ready to score, Stanway strapping the ball on and Beth Mead screaming”.
Ramping up the crowd: The night before the finale, Baddiel and the Lightning Seeds performed a Lionesses version of the song at a gig in Camden (pictured).