The song that's destined to be forever associated with the 2010 World Cup came to its creator in a split second in the summer of 2007. Somali-born rapper K'Naan was taking a break from recording his debut album at Sony Studios in New York. The melody came to him suddenly as he walked through the damp streets after a rain shower, making him dash back to the studio and abandon the track he had been working on, in favor of what would become "Wavin' Flag." "I was kind of in a frenzy," recalls K'Naan (pronounced KAY-non), back in New York for a round of promotion. "It was one of those songs that overtakes and consumes you."

Top 10 World Cup Soundtracks

U2 Pairs With ESPN, Soweto Choir For World Cup Song

Will World Cup Make South Africa a Touring Hot Spot?

DJ's Mix It Up to Celebrate South African Football

Will First S. African World Cup Be a Winner for Local Artists?

Indeed, from that moment on, "Wavin' Flag" has had a life of its own. It first appeared on his February 2008 debut, "Troubadour" (A&M/Octone). Peaking at No. 99 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 2009, "Flag" has now sold 155,000 U.S. copies, while "Troubadour" has moved 79,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The song also made K'Naan a household name in his adopted country of Canada, where it peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Canadian Hot 100 in February, propelling his artist and songwriter of the year wins at April's Juno Awards. K'Naan, along with Drake, Justin Bieber and Nikki Yanofsky, closed that show with a rousing performance of the song, which was rerecorded with an all-star cast under the name Young Artists for Haiti. The charity version debuted at No. 1 on the Canadian Hot 100 in March.

All of that, however, is about to look like very small potatoes indeed. This summer, "Wavin' Flag" will be taken to a whole new level, as K'Naan embarks on the final stage of a two-year plan that gives the artist and his music unprecedented global exposure.

Selected by Coca-Cola as the centerpiece of its $300 million campaign for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the rerecorded "Coca-Cola Celebration Mix" of "Wavin' Flag" will soundtrack all of the company's World Cup-related TV commercials throughout the world and be featured prominently on the months-long global FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour.

The new version will be released as a single in 150 countries. It's available in 12 different duet versions-recorded with local stars and targeted at Spain/Latin America, France, Greece, Brazil, Thailand, South Africa, the Middle East, Indonesia, Nigeria, China and Japan-and have been rolling out globally since the start of the year. In the United States, a "Wavin' Flag" remix and video featuring David Guetta and Will.i.am was unveiled at the end of April as an MTV 360 premiere. For the billions of soccer fans who will be gripped by the tournament, familiarity with the song and its creator is inevitable.

"We wanted a song that embodied our campaign," says Emmanuel Seuge, Coca-Cola group director of worldwide sports and entertainment marketing. "It needed to be upbeat, it needed to be uplifting, it needed to be an invitation for people to celebrate."

In truth, the original version of "Wavin' Flag" seems like a curious choice for a celebration. K'Naan (born Keinan Abdi Warsame) spent his formative years in Somalia, and at age 13 he got a seat on the last commercial flight to leave the country before the civil war began.

While the refrain and melody give "Wavin' Flag" its U2-like, anthemic quality, lyrically it's a personal song about his early life in Somalia and the flags he saw flying as he left. Nonetheless, Joe Belliotti, then-VP of entertainment strategy at Brand Asset Group, which specializes in matching music with corporations, pitched the song to Coca-Cola in February 2009 with dramatic results. "We fell in love with K'Naan and his story," Seuge says.

A hastily arranged trip to see K'Naan perform at South by Southwest in March followed, with discussions between the rapper and his team scheduled for the next day. "What attracted K'Naan to the project was we weren't looking to [just] license a song from him," says Belliotti, who joined Coca-Cola in January as director of entertainment marketing. "We were really trying to create something bigger where he could be involved throughout the process-the release, promotion, live events, the Trophy Tour, the whole World Cup experience."

NEXT PAGE