Rubén Blades, Erika Ender, Kafu Banton & More Celebrate Panama in World Cup Song: Watch

Panamanian artists score a team goal with euphoric “Sube La Marea” for Copa Airlines, celebrating the national team’s first trip to World Cup.

Rubén Blades, Erika Ender, Kafu Banton, Omar Alfanno, Nando Boom and other Panamanian artists have scored a team goal with a new song celebrating Panama’s first-ever participation in a World Cup.

The track was recorded for Copa Airlines as a send-off for the national team, known as la marea roja (the red tide). But branding aside, “Sube La Marea” (“The Tide Rises”) sounds the way a good fútbol song should: a stands-jumping joyous jam, rather than an over-strategized advertising jingle. It’s an irresistible victory dance track for the fans of a team that has already won by just qualifying for the tournament. And of course, this “tide” swells with national pride (“My name is Panama,” screams the chorus.)

Brothers Ricardo and Alberto Gaitan wrote the song, which reclaims Panama’s reggaetón legacy and honors its traditional genres, as well as Panamanian artists’ vocal prowess. Los Rabanes, Sammy and Sandra Sandoval, Osvaldo Ayala and Ingrid de Icaza are among the other performers featured on the song proclaiming Panama’s trip to the 2018 Russia World Cup “the dream that came true.”

Watch the accompanying soccer-happy video here.