In 1960, the very first UEFA European Football Championship was held. It’s taken place each 4 years since then and is, at the time of this writing, the second-most watched soccer event in the world after the FIFA World Cup. (That’s European soccer, by the method, known as soccer by American audiences.)

Since 1992, every championship has featured a new music, typically multilingual with the host nation’s language. In 2020, Bono and the Edge of U2 took half in that 12 months’s music creation. It was titled “We Are the People,” in collaboration with Martin Garrix, Albin Nedler, Kristoffer Fogelmark, Giorgio Tuinfort and Simon Edmund Carmody.

“Creating the music for one of the biggest sports events in the world together with Bono and the Edge has been an incredible experience,” Garrix mentioned in a press launch at the moment (through Pitchfork). “I’m very proud of what we did together and excited to finally share it with the world!”

READ MORE: Top 10 Post-‘Achtung Baby’ U2 Songs

Bono and the Edge even “performed” the music nearly at the championship’s opening ceremony, which you’ll watch under.

Work on the music started three years earlier than it was launched, and it was accomplished earlier than the pandemic started in March of 2020, with the whole course of stored a secret.

“At one point [Bono] was singing new melodies,” Garrix informed Rolling Stone in 2021. “And mind you, I think this was six hours after we sent the email to them asking whether they were interested. I remember I had to mute myself on the phone during the conversation just to scream and then unmute and play it cool. It was incredible.”

Next factor Garrix knew, he was flying to Monaco to document the monitor with the two members of U2.

“I had goosebumps in the studio the entire time,” he recalled, “because it’s Bono standing next to me singing the song.”

The 2024 Euro Final between Spain and England will happen on July 14 at 3 p.m. EST.