Christmas version of ‘Three Lions’ released ahead of Qatar World Cup

David Baddiel, Frank Skinner & The Lightning Seeds recorded the new festive version of the 1996 football classic

(Joe Magowan)

A special Christmas edition of the classic football track “Three Lions” by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner & The Lightning Seeds has been released.

“Three Lions (It’s Coming Home for Christmas)” was released today ahead of the world cup in Qatar, which kicks off on 20 November.

After the Lionesses win during the summer, Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds were inspired to make a new version of the song that incorporated their victory.

The new version now features new lyrics and an audio clip of the Lionesses’ press conference rendition of the song as well as featuring players Jess Carter and Beth England in the video.

New lyrics also include festive mentions such as: “Three Lions on a sleigh, with She-Lion’s Inspiration, Santa says let’s play, the Christmas tree formation.”

“At last it’s between me and Mariah Carey for who really is the voice of Christmas,” joked Baddiel.

“We just had to do it. Christmas World Cup songs are not like buses. If we’d let this opportunity pull away, it would have been a very long wait for the next one,” Skinner said.

“Three Lions” was originally released in 1996 during the Euros.

It went to No 1 twice in 1996, and then again when it was re-released for the world cup in 1998.

It’s the only song to have become number one with the same artists on four different occasions – first in 1996, then in 1998 and again in 2018.

All tracks of the classic song contain the distinctive lyrics “it’s coming home,” which are widely chanted by English fans whenever the country plays a game.

In the 2020 Euros, the song also spent four weeks in the top ten, with as many as three million Spotify streams by the last day of the tournament.

“Three Lions (It’s Coming Home For Christmas)” is out now.