At that time, Bono and The Edge wrote a song together for the European Championship

The very first UEFA European Football Championship was held in 1960. It has been held every four years since then and, at the time of writing, is the second most watched football tournament in the world after the FIFA World Cup. (That’s the European football that American audiences call “soccer,” by the way.)

Since 1992, a new song has been released at each championship, often multilingual in the language of the host country. In 2020, Bono and The Edge from U2 participated in this year’s song creation. The title was “We Are the People”, in collaboration with Martin Garrix, Albin Nedler, Kristoffer Fogelmark, Giorgio Tuinfort and Simon Edmund Carmody.

“Working with Bono and The Edge to create music for one of the biggest sporting events in the world was an incredible experience,” Garrix said in a press release at the time (via Pitchfork). “I’m very proud of what we did together and excited to finally share it with the world!”

READ MORE: Top 10 U2 songs after “Achtung Baby”

Bono and The Edge even “performed” the song virtually at the championship opening ceremony, which you can watch below.

Work on the song began three years before its release and it was completed before the pandemic began in March 2020, with the entire process kept secret.

“At some point (Bono) sang new melodies,” Garrix said Rolling Stone in 2021. “And mind you, I think that was six hours after we sent them the email asking if they were interested. I remember having to mute my phone during the conversation just to scream, and then unmute it and keep my cool. It was incredible.”

Next, Garrix flew to Monaco to record the song with the two members of U2.

“I had goosebumps the whole time in the studio,” he recalls, “because Bono was standing next to me singing the song.”

The 2024 Euro final between Spain and England will take place on July 14 at 3:00 p.m. EST.