And here comes the carnival in Brazil

The countdown to the 2014 World Cup is officially underway with barely three months left for that first whistle, and it is shaping up to be a carnival atmosphere from start to finish, that is if the video for FIFA’s official song is anything to go by.

If you have not made your travel arrangements by now perhaps you might be just late for this global event that many have been looking forward to for the past four years.

To set the tone, three Latino stars have come up with a song that is likely to set our feet thumping to the beat as we drink and dance in Brazil.

We Are One (Ole Ola) features Jennifer Lopez alongside Cuban-American rapper Pitbull and Brazilian singer Claudio Leitte.

The World Cup theme song replaces the much acclaimed Shakira’s Waka Waka (This Is Africa) that wowed audiences in South Africa four years ago.

And with that Shakira became only the first artiste to record the official theme song for two successive World Cup editions after her Hips Don’t Lie success in Germany in 2006. Theme songs are adopted officially to be used as warm-ups to the event, to accompany the championships during the event and as a souvenir reminder of the events as well as for advertising campaigns leading for the World Cup, giving the singers exceptional universal world coverage and notoriety.

The songs chosen are usually multilingual using English, the language of the official language of the organising country as well as other world languages, most notably Spanish.

The official versions also results in cover versions in many other languages by the original artiste or by local artistes.

No wonder it was Waka Waka in 2010 a song that was originally done by a Cameroonian group in the 1980s.

And the pictures from the video shoot, which took place in Fort Lauderdale this week, look like the spirit of Brazilian carnival have been captured perfectly.

Pitbull, Jenifer Lopez and Claudio Leitte will perform the song at the tournament’s opening ceremony on June 12, in Sao Paulo, before Brazil take on Croatia in the first fixture.

And samba stars such as Barcelona’s Neymar, Chelsea’s David Luiz, Oscar, and Willian and Tottenham’s Paulinho are sure to approve of the energetic song as a precursor to their attempts to win a record sixth World Cup title.

Lopez cannot wait for the tournament to begin, claiming: ‘I grew up in a house that loved “futbol,” so I am thrilled to be performing at the World Cup Opening Ceremonies with Pitbull and Claudia Leitte.’

However, she may be less thrilled by the draw which saw the United States drawn alongside heavyweights Germany, Portugal and Ghana in Group G.

We Are One (Ole Ola) will take the place of Waka Waka by Shakira which was the official anthem of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

In order to give it a global appeal the song is expected to feature lyrics in English, Spanish and Portuguese.