‘Sirius’: How a corny prog-rock song from 1982 lives to soundtrack the 2026 World Cup
Pick any game from this year’s FIFA World Cup in North America, be it an early fixture or the big final, and you can bet money you’ll hear the dramatic, looping chords of the proggy ‘Sirius’ instrumental.
Across the matchday one group of games, it was even the official walk-out theme for all teams. It’s since been swapped with Shakira and Burna Boy’s official World Cup song ‘Dai Dai’, but ‘Sirius’ will still play at various points in the pre-match preamble or during half-time. While enjoying little presence in sporting culture outside the US and Canada, mammoth stadiums through to college American football grounds all keep a copy of ‘Sirius’ on playlist standby, ready to be spun with ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘Seven Nation Army’.
Yet, while everybody can point out Queen and The White Stripes, most will remain stumped on the name Alan Parsons. For such a lack of rock and pop familiarity, the British prog stalwart boasted a glittering music CV before co-founding his namesake band in 1975. Previously, he’d won engineering credits on The Beatles’ Abbey Road and Let It Be, as well as Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon opus.
Six albums in with The Alan Parsons Project, the frontman would unwittingly stumble upon his most enduring cut. While working on 1982’s Eye in the Sky, Parsons thought its title track needed a suitably evocative intro to act as an opening segue. He had the gear; at Parsons’ disposal was the innovative Fairlight CMI digital synthesiser and workstation, working out a sampled clavinet riff coated in stirring delay and backed with orchestral strings.
‘Sirius’, so named after the brightest star in the Canis Major constellation, would prove too hokey and cheesy for European patience, but naturally, the States would embrace Parsons’ pompous instrumental with open arms.
It all started with the Chicago Bulls. Selected after hearing the piece in a movie theatre, public address announcer Tommy Edwards first spun ‘Sirius’ in October 1984 as a pre-game hype piece, soon becoming the starting lineup introduction tune for the NBA basketball team on the cusp of their golden era. Before long, superstar Michael Jordan would lead the Bulls to six NBA championship wins across the 1990s, all scored by Parsons’ two-minute instrumental.
From then on, grounds up and down the States and Canada would adopt ‘Sirius’ as their anthem to sporting drive, athletic prowess, and the jittery butterflies felt among the team before their big game.
For decades, Parsons’ proggy cut has never stopped playing every pitch, field, or court to this day, now penetrating global ears with its echo around the US games of the current World Cup. As well as its ubiquity in TV, movies, and video games, ‘Sirius’ co-writer still wanders the Earth with next to no recognition for his eternal sporting anthem.
“There’s an old story about me going into Tower Records on Sunset Strip in LA,” Parsons confessed to Prog in 2017, “I bought several copies of my own albums to the counter because I didn’t have any to give away to friends and so on. I slapped down a credit card, which clearly had the words ‘Alan Parsons’ on it, and the cashier said, ‘Have you got ID?’”
