80. Major Lazer – Hold The Line
From FIFA 10
Major Lazer seem tailor-made for FIFA, really. They’re big enough for your mum to have heard of, but still cool enough not to be on her Spotify playlist. The moombahton trio’s track Hold The Line is to date the only song that’s made it onto FIFA – maybe because it's an instruction to the Tottenham defence on set pieces.
This is a good un, too – and it came before they got really famous, too. Textbook EA, that.
79. Mondo Cosmo – Automatic
From FIFA 18
Automatic sounds like the kind of song that U2 would write if they had a season ticket at a Championship club. It’s anthemic without being overblown and still cool enough to play in the car with your mates. How this track hasn’t been nabbed by a car advert yet is totally beyond all of us at FFT.
78. Foster The People – Call It What You Want
From FIFA 12
Foster the People frontman Mark Foster used to write radio jingles. Hence why he had a knack for getting a song stuck in your head. Call It What You Want was just that – one of the catchier tracks on FIFA 12 but not as overplayed as the Californian act’s biggest hit, Pumped Up Kicks.
Well-played from EA to select the right one.
77. Portugal. The Man – Live In The Moment
From FIFA 18
Portugal. The Man may well be considered a one-hit wonder in the United Kingdom, following the explosive success of Feel It Still, but the Alaska-based rockers – yes really, Alaska: it's just them and Sarah Palin – have been staples of FIFA soundtrack a few times over the years.
Live In The Moment is every bit as big, crashing and anthemic as an indie song in FIFA needs to be these days. For our money, it’s definitely the best thing that Portugal has contributed to FIFA. That’s Portugal. The Man, not Portugal. The Country.
76. Bombo Estereo – Soy Yo
From FIFA 16
EA love a Spanish-speaking artist on the jukebox. At least we think it’s Spanish…?
Viral hit Soy Yo, featured actress Sarai Gonzalez, has over 23 million views on YouTube and is the biggest track on an album that scooped a Latin Grammy.
Yet it’s better known for being that shouty song on the FIFA edition that Jordan Henderson on the cover and being in a Deezer advert.
You win some, you lose some, eh Bomba Estereo?
75. AIR – Surfing On A Rocket
From FIFA 05
Like Arsene Wenger in the late '90s, EA was a dab-hand for bringing great French exports to wider attention – and AIR are one of the greatest Gallic groups of all time in our opinion.
The downtempo electronica duo are best known for Moon Safari tracks Sexy Boy and Kelly Watch The Stars but were chosen in 2005, with their track, Surfing on a Rocket. It’s one of the more understated songs of FIFA’s early days, but one of the best tracks on that particular year’s line-up.
74. Madeon – Imperium
From FIFA 15
In the middle of the last decade, Nantes-born producer Hugo Leclercq - better known by his mononym Madeon - became the next big name in a French house scene that included the likes of Daft Punk and Justice.
Imperium was as big and bold as the EDM that had been scattered across FIFA in the 2010s, while still pumping with the French house of the previous decade. It’s one of those tracks on FIFA 15 that was impossible to ignore, whether you loved it or despised it.
73. Empire of the Sun – Alive
From FIFA 14
EA can’t resist Australian dance-pop acts with theatrical costumes and a love of soft synthesisers. OK, their suggestion of “Hey guys, have you heard of Empire of the Sun?” was so late it would be like asking your mates if they’d heard of Edinson Cavani now. But Alive was still a bop.
The alternative pop during the middle of the 2010s was strong indeed on FIFA. This was one of the biggest and best choruses going, too.
72. Idris Elba & Kallie – Ballie
From FIFA 21
FIFA 21 introduced goal music to the game. Now, you could use tracks from the soundtrack itself when you netted in FUT – and this banger from Idris Elba was the perfect choice.
From the Volta side of the soundtrack, Ballie is a hell of a lot darker sounding than most FIFA tracks, as the lyrics boast of Big Dris being the "hottest DJ in the world right now". Wait for the bassline too: it's beefier than a midfield of Leon Goretzka and Roy Keane.
71. Kasabian – Fast Fuse
From FIFA 09
Leicester-based (though they never mention it) band Kasabian are one of the most featured bands ever on FIFA – Fast Fuse even appeared on the game before it was actually on a Kasabian album.
The Tarantino-esque jam is one of the highlights of Mercury-nominated record West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, released in summer 2009. Gamers had been hearing it since FIFA was released in the October, prior, however.
Guitarist Sergio Pizzorno is also really good at football, as turns on Soccer AM and Soccer Aid prove.
70. Flume – Rushing Back ft. Vera Blue
FIFA 20
A song that immediately transports your soul to an overcast festival in the English countryside, Rushing Back is the perfect meeting of soothing synth and thumping drums. A very modern choice from the FIFA bods – who have clearly spent plenty of time in the past drinking warm cans of cider in a muddy field.
69. Beck – Dreams
From FIFA 16
Were FIFA around in the 1970s – imagine icon cards of Stanley Matthews – it’s probable that David Bowie would’ve been the go-to artist for the soundtracks. Chameleonic, melodic and always driven by the rhythm section, the Thin White Duke was always a little too in his fifties to be on the soundtrack in the 2000s.
Beck is arguably his modern-day equivalent. Though he’s been on top of his game since the '90s, it took until very recently for him to sneak onto FIFA with Dreams and Up All Night on consecutive games. Both bright, fun and energetic pop songs, we’re going with Dreams as our favourite of the pair.
68. Miles Kane – Don't Forget Who You Are
From FIFA 14
Arctic Monkeys have never been on FIFA. Shocking, we know.
But close friend Miles Kane has. Don’t Forget Who You Are fit the bill as the retro, guitar-smashing drive of FIFA 14. It was a hell of a soundtrack that year, with this just one of the highlights.
67. Death From Above – Crystal Ball
From FIFA 15
Another one of those guitar-heavy bands that lit up the 2000s, Crystal Ball by Death From Above was one of the heavier moments on FIFA 15. But not without that trademark melody that often seduces EA.
In an ever-changing landscape of fewer guitars on mainstream radio, thos was a lot less synthy than much of 2015’s soundtrack, but it still pops. Arguably the best thing to come out of Canada since Alphonso Davies.
66. Celeste – Stop This Flame
From FIFA 21
You know the one. Celeste's Stop This Flame is a jaunty piano hit that has grown into itself over the last three years, becoming the Sky Sports theme tune to Premier League coverage and accompanying those ticker-tape graphics. It's also on FIFA – because we can't get enough of a good thing.
65. YouMeAtSix – Lived A Lie
From FIFA 14
It’s not often that EA have dipped into pop punk – unless Lostprophets in the 2000s counts? – which is surprising, given the subgenre’s popularity with boys of a certain age who live off Monster energy drinks and the nostalgia that those thick guitars and soaring melodies evoke.
YouMeAtSix are one of the most popular bands of a particular scene, though – it made sense to get them on FIFA 14, and this is a typically upbeat bop.
64. LSD – Genius
From FIFA 19
While the first two editions of The Journey opted for high-octane, laddish intros, FIFA went for something different in the final instalment. The title sequence features Kim Hunter – Alex’s little sister – juggling a football career with her homework, soundtracked by Genius, from supergroup LSD (that’s Labrinth, Sia and Diplo).
It’s a theatrical song and as you can imagine from the artists involved, immaculately produced with excellent vocals. Great pick all round.
63. Vampire Weekend – Worship You
From FIFA 14
The only surprise here is that Vampire Weekend weren’t included on FIFA earlier. With their afrobeat-inspired rhythms, jaunty melodies and sunny verve, they seem like exactly the kind of artist that should have been blessing menus on half a dozen editions.
Worship You is the quintessential VW song in many ways. It was a nice indie moment on FIFA 14 – and the whole Modern Vampires of the City record that this was taken from is an FFT office favourite.
62. Joy Crookes – Feet Don't Fail Me Now
From FIFA 22
Ohhhhh, yes. This song will forever go down as the theme tune to the Lionesses' summer triumph in 2022 since the BBC used the track – and Crookes, herself in the intro alongside some of the players – for their coverage. But just as Beth Mead was a baller before the Wembley stage, don't forget where you first heard this one.
61. Run The Jewels – Mean Demeanor
From FIFA 18
It’s unlikely that Run The Jewels – two 45-year-old, politically-motivated US rappers, who conducted a chant-a-long of tens of thousands of festival-goers once of “f*** Donald Trump” – are that big into football. We’d love to see them on Monday Night Football if they are.
Still, Mean Demeanor was a welcome inclusion to FIFA 17. Typically dark, industrial and snarling, the song is an example of how EA can somehow include hip-hop that would make your mother gasp with colourful indie-pop for one harmonious soundtrack. Go on, play it in the car with your parents. We dare you.
