Liverpool, The King of Football and the Footprint of World Music

Walk on through the wind/Walk on through the rain/Though your dreams be tossed and blown//Walk on/walk on/With hope in your heart/And you'll never walk alone/You'll never walk alone//

Anfield Stadium, bathed in red, took on a poignant atmosphere as this song resonated from the players and supporters. The song, which is regularly sung before matches, was now performed again with a sense of gratitude following the victory in the English League trophy for the 2024-2025 season.

After Manchester City's dominance in the previous four seasons, Liverpool broke that streak of glory at home by defeating Tottenham Hotspur 5-1 on Sunday (27/4/2025). For the first time, Liverpool celebrated the league championship joyfully among the Kopites, the nickname for Liverpool supporters, considering that the victory in the 2019/2020 season was celebrated in isolation due to the pandemic.

The resonance of the song 'You’ll Never Walk Alone' is indeed timeless. The song, written in 1945 by two American composers, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for the musical Carousel, was reinterpreted by the Liverpool-based music group, Gerry & The Pacemakers, in the 1960s.

When this song topped the charts in England in 1963, it was performed by supporters before the match against Leicester City. It turned out that at the end of the 1963-1964 season, it also coincided with Liverpool winning the English League trophy again after a 17-year drought without a championship.

The presence of this song among Liverpool fans at that time was never planned. The song was sung because the top 10 songs on the charts in England were intentionally played in the stadium while waiting for the match to begin. However, when the song, which features lyrics composed by Gerry Marsden, the vocalist of Gerry & The Pacemakers, was removed from the charts, the supporters collectively cheered, "Where is our song?".

Since then, the song You’ll Never Walk Alone has always resonated and become Liverpool’s national anthem. Even this sentence is also featured on Shankly Gates and is the only song title to appear on a club crest in English football.

Football and music are indeed inseparable for the city of Liverpool, which is part of Merseyside. This team sport, which originated in England, became a favorite during that time because anyone could play it, despite its dominance among the lower classes.

The city of Liverpool became a fertile ground for the development of football in the late 1890s with the presence of Everton Football Club and its breakaway, Liverpool Football Club. On the other hand, this city also sowed the seeds of music during that time and reaped the benefits after World War II in line with the resurgence of football's popularity.

When discussing music and the city of Liverpool, one cannot overlook this historic band, The Beatles. The quartet consisting of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, affectionately known as The Fab Four, also serves as a symbol of the city of Liverpool to the world, much like the Liverpool football club.

Starting out as the group The Quarrymen, Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison expanded their musical wings outside Liverpool in 1959. After playing a number of gigs in Hamburg, Germany, they returned to Liverpool and regularly played at the Cavern Club as the Merseybeat movement grew in their hometown.

From this independent music club, they met producers and managers who took their music careers across continental borders. At that time, their fate was also united with Starr as the drummer. The success of The Beatles shook the music world and further ignited the development of Merseybeat.

Gerry & The Pacemakers is one of the bands that emerged during the Merseybeat era. Although their momentum began to wane as they entered the 1970s, the influence of Merseybeat continues to inspire various musicians who were born and raised in Liverpool.

If you are familiar with the song 'There She Goes,' which has been covered many times to this day, it is important to note that the song belongs to the band The La's from Liverpool. There is also the hit song 'You To Me Are Everything,' which is a release by the band The Real Thing, also from Liverpool.

Currently, the city of Liverpool continues to produce its musical talents in the indie scene. Among them are The Zutons, The Wombats, and the currently popular The Sway, who are also fans of the Liverpool football club. They are also graduates of the Cavern Club, which reopened in 1991 and continues to this day.

The Cavern Club, located in Liverpool, is a venue sought after by various musicians to sharpen their careers. Several big names such as Elton John, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Queen, Black Sabbath, and The Who have also graced the stage at the Cavern Club.

Liverpool certainly have a way of being remembered.