Aug 2, 2006, 12:25 GMT
Paris - A song mocking the head butt by French football star Zinedine Zidane during the final of the World Cup in Germany has become a massive hit in France and propelled the three members of pop group La Plage to overnight stardom.
The extraordinary attack on Italy's Marco Materazzi in the July 9 final in Berlin has proved a goldmine for the group, whose song Coup de Boule (head butt) is storming its way to the top of the charts.
Executives at Warner Music France, which has purchased the rights to the 2:30-minute-long track, are rubbing their hands with glee.
With more than 135,000 copies sold, any talk of a money-spinner is premature (usually reserved for sales of over 400,000), says company head Thierry Chassagne, but the song is definitely a hit.
Sales of the song look set to continue rocketing since being made available on iTunes, the world's foremost supplier of music downloads.
Meanwhile, the international music world is beating a path to the Parisians' door. At least 20 countries, including Japan, the Philippines and Mexico, want to get their hands on the track, which is already available in Spanish and Italian.
Sebastien Lipszyc, 31, one of the La Plage trio, along with brother Emmanuel, 34, and singer Franck Lascombes, 35, still enjoys telling the story of how the song originated - a story that reads like a modern fairytale.
It all began on the Monday morning after the final with the friends poking fun at the frustration in the country over the defeat of 'les Bleus' in the final's penalty shootout.
Half an hour later, a summer hit was spawned. The musicians, who previously made their money mainly from jingles, say they dug the soundtrack out of a 'drawer' of old melodies.
The finished product was sent by internet on July 10 at around 5 p.m. to some 50 friends, who kept passing the ball, so to speak, by forwarding it to their own acquaintances.
By that evening a radio broadcaster was tootling the chorus of the song, with its slight African flavour, which goes: 'Zidane has struck. Head butt.'
On Tuesday it was downloaded 2,000 times within one hour from La Plage Records website.
As Wednesday morning dawned, some 'very aggressive' representatives of three record companies had come knocking and by that evening a contract with Warner Music France had been inked, with a video following by Saturday.
Since then things have really taken off but the three diehard fans of 'les Bleus' swear they intend to keep their feet firmly on the ground and not let their new-found fame go to their heads.
As for Zidane, Lipszyc hopes he can at least get a laugh out of it. But the 34-year-old star, whose undignified departure from the footballing stage will be etched in fans' memories for some time to come, probably has other things on his mind.
Franck Riboud, head of his long-time sponsor Danone, is apparently playing with the idea of bringing the soccer supremo onto the food company's supervisory board, in a move echoing the partnership of the company with French skiing legend Jean-Claude Killy.
But first the furore over the head butt must run its course.
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