Between Louis Dunford and Odumodublvck: All It Takes Is Time, Season and People
Dunford performing at the Hammersmith
Louis Dunford’s Arsenal’s jersey read ‘Be Lucky’ as he performed North London Forever at the Hammersmith. Dunford’s song has not only become probably the most popular song among Arsenal fans, it is also the club’s official matchday anthem.
Dunford was born in Islington in the north of Greater London. He is a son of the soil, an Arsenal fan and a lucky man too.
His North London Forever coincided with the period of a cultural redirection by the club and a time when its fanbase needed a sweeping, inclusive identity to hold on to.
Arsenal have a young, cosmopolitan and diverse fanbase and what Dunford’s song represented was an apt capture of North London, its geography, people, culture and class. Although the song’s chorus is the only bit chorused by fans of the club on every match day, North London Forever signifies the growing intersection between music and football.
Globally today, songs are played in different grounds, and great musicals have been one of football tournaments’ more revered pieces of entertainment. Arsenal needed an emotive, masterfully-delivered piece of art to combine with the electric atmosphere their ground can be and today, they have one of the most fearsome grounds to go to in European football. Positive messages line walls and stand and it is really a positive time to be an Arsenal fan. All the club needs at this point in time is a defining moment of true sporting triumph - a major trophy.
Despite the lack of one, there is a generalised sense of direction, faith, belief and hope in where the club is headed and Dunford’s song has contributed greatly to that new reality.
Arsenal had emerged from a black hole of stagnancy before the appointment of Mikel Arteta. The club’s fanbase was divided and the need for a point of unity was apparent, and that’s what music can bring to a volatile, tense and sometimes irreverent sport like football.
Fans are the blood-life of football grounds and football teams; they make the atmosphere, they define the mood and expectations, and the reverberation of; “North London forever…Whatever the weather, these streets are our own… And my heart will leave you, never… My blood will forever, run through the stone” is a perfect definition of a message steeped in love for place and transferred to a club by association.
It’s not the first time Arsenal fans have had to connect music to a football story that’s roundly desired.
Odumodublvck had made Declan Rice with his lyrics intent on another meaning and set in a different direction, but such is the power of a name that his own idea of a title flew miles beyond his widest imagination.
Declan Rice - not the song - had become thåe most expensive player in Arsenal’s history and made probably the most popular move in the Premier League in 2023. Just some months before his arrival at the Emirates, Rice had led West Ham to a European triumph and was everywhere as a result. This meant glory for Odumodublvck in Lagos. Just by the choice of his song’s title, his record became popular among one of football’s strongest, widest, loudest, youngest and most diverse fanbase.
Music and football have a long history and it is as spiritual as connective. Louis Dunford, by the sheer origins of his life and choices which may have been premised on many factors, has become a cult hero among Arsenal fans. Odumodublvck’s “Big Kala” insignia may not be widely known outside Nigeria as its meaning is locally cultural, but by the unfathomable essence of time and season, he is probably as famous as Dunford to Arsenal fans.
Odumodublvck and Declan Rice
Every superlative Rice performance sees Odumodublvck having his song receive adulations and so consistent is that man that a bad game from his is a rarity.
Dunford and Odumodublvck, although worlds apart and desirous of separate destinations, have their goals united by a common ambition - to entertain, make music and in the process touch hearts. They have managed to do so, and the manner of influence they now have is barely deliberate. It requires some element of luck, as Dunford donned when he performed his song at the Hammersmith. Sometimes, all it takes is to be lucky but even that needs preparation and they both came ready.