Coup du marteau

Tam Sir was not trying to write a football anthem. The 25-year-old Ivorian beatmaker told Jeune Afrique that he simply wanted a song for the end-of-year holidays, because in Abidjan a hit in December is the equivalent of a summer hit in Europe. He gathered a group of rising young artists, Team Paiya, Ste Milano, Renard Barakissa, Tazeboy and PSK, and fused maïmouna, a modern style of Ivorian rap, with the energy of coupé-décalé, borrowing from the chants of Elephants supporters and the sound of vuvuzelas. Coup du marteau came out on 8 December 2023, just as Côte d'Ivoire was preparing to host the Africa Cup of Nations, which had been pushed back from mid-2023 to January 2024 because of bad weather. Timing helped. The song arrived fifteen days before Akwaba, the official anthem by Magic System, and a simple, easy-to-copy dance did the rest. Within two months the video had more than 24 million views on YouTube. Teams across the tournament used the dance to celebrate goals and wins, which was seen as a setback for the Confederation of African Football and its official compilation. When Côte d'Ivoire beat Nigeria 2-1 in the final, Coup du marteau became the soundtrack of the national team's victory. The video passed 100 million views in August 2024, and in France the single went gold and then platinum. A holiday party track made with young unknowns ended up as the anthem of a tournament the whole country remembers.