Song · K'naan
“Wavin' Flag” by K'naan
From the album Troubadour (2009)
“Wavin' Flag” by K'naan appears on 9 radio countdowns from 7 stations between 2009 and 2022. It was first released in 2009 on the album Troubadour. Its best result is #24 on the WTMD Top 89 Songs of 2009.
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Video from YouTube (KnaanVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
K'naan wrote "Wavin' Flag" for Somalia, a song about its people's hunger for freedom, and put it on his 2009 album Troubadour, where it followed "ABCs" as the record's second official single. Bob Ezrin produced it and Dylan Dresdow mixed it, and in Canada the Somali-Canadian artist's original peaked at two on the Canadian Hot 100.
Then it went global. Coca-Cola took up a reworked version, with extra lyrics, as its anthem for promoting the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and that edit, released in English as "Wavin' Flag (Celebration Mix)", made the top ten on more than twenty charts around the world. In 2012 he told the song's story in a children's book, When I Get Older.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 96 | 107.1 The Peak Westchester County, NY | WXPK Top 107 Songs of 2009 | 107 |
| 2009 | 79 | WXPN Philadelphia, PA | WXPN Year in Review: Top 100 Songs of 2009 | 100 |
| 2009 | 93 | 106.1 The Corner Charlottesville, VA | 106.1 The Corner Top 106 Songs of 2009 | 106 |
| 2009 | 24 | WTMD Baltimore, MD | WTMD Top 89 Songs of 2009 | 89 |
| 2010 | 69 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge Toronto, ON | 102.1 The Edge Top 102 Songs of 2010 | 102 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 247 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Songs That Matter from the Last Decade | 913 |
| 2016 | 754 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Countdown 2016 | 913 |
| 2018 | 301 | WTMD | WTMD Listeners' Top 897 Songs, 2003-2018 | 896 |
| 2022 | 674 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 2000s | 907 |
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