This is our fight song: Rugby sevens teams share the unofficial anthems they picked for Paris 2024 (2024)

The locker room of Argentina’s rugby sevens men's team is typically buzzing with banter and jokes. But as soon as the first notes of “Muchachos” ring out over the speakers, the players get down to business.

“It's like the start of being prepared to go to the war,” Argentina's back Joaquin Pellandini told Olympics.com at the inaugural World Rugby SVNS Grand Final in Madrid, Spain.

"Muchachos" - a revival of a 2003 salsa classic, now packed with lyrics that celebrate football world cup winning greats Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi - fuelled Team Argentina to a finals clash with France who, in turn, had their own playlist spurring them into battle.

Olympics.com went behind the scenes at the Rugby SVNS Grand Final 2024 to discover the backstory of Argentina's football-inspired fight song, dived into the playlists of New Zealand's "music committee" and found out USA's strategic approach to finding the perfect team anthem ahead of Paris 2024.

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An homage to a beloved country

Like most of Argentina, the country’s rugby sevens players were glued to television screens when their national football team triumphed in a dramatic final against France at the men's 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Over the following days, ecstatic Argentines in their famous light blue and white striped colours flooded the streets of Buenos Aires, chanting “Muchachos, Ahora Nos Volvimos a Ilusionar” (Boys, now we have high hopes again), a cover of an old La Mosca song with new, fan-made lyrics. Fernando Romero had composed them as a tribute to Argentina's victory in Copa America in 2021.

The song made a comeback when Lionel Messi named it as his personal favourite - and even sang a few lines - in a television interview broadcast ahead of the World Cup. By the time the whole Argentine team sang it on the pitch after their group stage victory against Mexico, "Muchachos" soared into the status of a national team song.

Now it is Argentina's rugby sevens team singing it in their glittering run to the 2024 Olympic Games.

“It represents a lot of ourselves,” Pellandini said. “We are very much football fanatics. Arriving at the stadium, we put this on the bus and it's like a ritual for us.”

Argentina’s neighbour, Uruguay, also goes to rugby battle with the sounds of their national music scene spurring them on.

Uruguayan rock classics, “Cielo de un solo color” (Sky of a single colour) by No Te Va Gustar and “Llenos de Magia” (Full of magic) by La Vela Puerca, play on repeat in the team's locker room.

“Those two are the ones when we finish the warm-up. Going back to the changing room, we put on those two songs,” Uruguay forward Diego Ardao said. “Putting this shirt on, that's all the excitement that we need. We don't need a song to feel the energy. But the song is something to be all in the same mood and feeling it.”

For double Olympic champions Fiji, it is a traditional folk song that creates that immediate magic bond. The players dance to its rhythm every day in training and before their matches.

“It means, 'Our Beloved Country'. We will die for it every time in that game,” the men's team veteran Jerry Tuwai said. “It psyches us up before we come out to play.”

Freight trains and Disney ballads: It's all about the lyrics

The Australian women’s team has gone beyond national borders and into the pastures of the American South to find their fight song.

Thanks to the many country music fans on the team's roster, guitar strums, banjos, and fiddles are often heard in their locker room with a few favourites playing on repeat. "Freight Train" by Georgia native Alan Jackson has emerged as the frontrunner ahead of Paris 2024.

“It's a country song, but we also talk about being freight trains and no one's stopping us so that's the reasoning behind it,” Olympic champion Charlotte Caslick explained. “I love country music, so I probably influenced [the choice] a lot, but our coach, Tim Walsh, always talks about freight trains, and then we kind of just merged them together.”

Lyrics also play a deciding role for Team Brazil when it comes to picking out their fight song. While there is a mix of songs on their playlist, Brazilian rappers Racionais MC’s and Emicida are the team's tested go-to's ahead of important matches.

“Some girls like it, others don't, but it's very relatable,” Brazil back Bianca Silva said. "A good part of this team sings too. We increase the energy this way."

Team Ireland’s playlist is also a fluid mix, with Justin Bieber, Casper Walsh, and other artists exchanging priority depending on which tournament the athletes are playing at.

There is, however, one song that the Irish players always turn to in times of their greatest triumphs – Hilary Duff’s “What Dreams Are Made Of”. Featured in Walt Disney Picture's Lizzie McGuire Movie, this is the song Duff’s character sings on stage in front of thousands of fans to underscore her transformation from a schoolgirl with stage fright to someone with the confidence to be a body double for a teen pop idol.

Rather than playing the song before every match, the Irish squad reserves "What Dreams Are Made Of" for major victories, such as when they won their first medal, a bronze, at the Spain Sevens Seville in 2022.

“That's one of the songs that we revert to if we've gotten really well and achieved a goal that we wanted to achieve,” Ireland’s back Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe said. “It's just, I suppose, because of the lyrics. This is what dreams are made of. It's playing for your country. It's representing your country. It's playing with your best friends out there on a world stage. It's very, very special to do it.”

Looking for the one and only headbanger

The lyrics of the French men’s team fight song are harder to pick apart, but as Aaron Grandidier says, it is the energy that truly matters.

“Before every single game we play 'Turbulence' by Steve Aoki, pretty good headbanger," the French back said. "When that comes on, you know you're going to need to battle pretty soon.”

Having retired their own headbanger “Bad Boy For Life”, Team USA are now searching for its replacement.

"We kept playing that over and over and over again. It was like Tom Brady's little anthem," two-time Olympian and former NFL player Perry Baker said of their former classic.

"[But] it is a different team, a different group.”

So what’s playing in the USA locker room now?

Damedot’s “Spend Some Money” was the team’s favourite until recently, but now Kendrick Lamar’s new single “Not Like Us” has taken over that prime slot. The clock is ticking to settle on a single tune before Paris 2024, but Baker is not concerned.

“We'll definitely get there. It's a summer song that will come out somewhere, something is going to come out soon and we're going to have it," he said. “It's just to remind us of who we are, what we come to do. I'm always about the lyrics, the words."

To increase their chances of finding that one song, Team USA also have a man on the case.

“Madison Hughes said we need to find one, and I told Madison to find it for us, and all he does is listen to audio tapes, so we're going to see how that goes,” Baker said.

The New Zealand men’s team are also still working on their Paris 2024 anthem and playlist - albeit with a more collective approach.

“We have a music committee, so they're on it,” Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Dylan Collier said, describing the team's current music selection as “a lot of tuf-tuf” bangers. “It's about two or three of them that are in it and they run all the music around the speakers, so we just leave it all up to them.”