Berklee College of Music graduates create Boston's theme song for FIFA World Cup

CBS News

11-06-2025

Two recent Berklee College of Music graduates created Boston's Sonic ID, ahead of next year's FIFA World Cup.
FIFA invited each of the 16 World Cup host cities in North America to create their own sound, before the eyes of the soccer world turned to them. But Boston was the only city to partner with a college to create its soundscape.
Boston's FIFA theme song for World Cup
Roommates Deven Kamra Lyons and Ben Zakharenko didn't know exactly what they were in for when their professor told them about an opportunity that could potentially change their lives.
"The project was initially introduced to us as a remix competition that Berklee was holding," says Kamra Lyons.
Zakharenko adds, "We both were like, OK let's try and apply for this opportunity and just see what happens. We both end up getting in and hearing the initial brief, and then we're like, whoa, this is a really big thing."
Kareem Clarke, a member of the professor advisor team says, "From the beginning, Deven and Ben really stood out," Clarke said. "I believe they were the number one from all the options that we had picked."
Another member of the advisory team, Professor Jason Petrin, agrees. "Theirs really captured everything we were looking for," Petrin said. "It had the Boston elements that FIFA put forth in the brief. The quality was there, so you know one of the big things is just the quality of the production, the quality of the writing. And theirs really stood out as sounding professional."
FIFA wanted each host city to remix its official theme, adding distinct cultural aspects of the region.
"There were a couple of things that we saw that they wanted that we really dialed in on," says Kamra Lyons. "One was the Celtic music influence, one was the more rock influence, and one was just getting the city of Boston to be communicated in the work."
Zakharenko explains, "I focused a lot more on the acoustic elements, because a lot of our ideas for the remix involved recording flutes, recording guitars, things like that which are instruments that I play."
An opportunity to change their lives
For the roommates, the decision to work together was an easy one.
Kamra Lyons says, "I realized that I wasn't going to be able to do everything by myself."
"We were like, well, if we're going to hear what each other are working on anyway, why not just combine our efforts and do something better than either of us could do individually?" adds Zakharenko.
A combined 20 to 30 hours of work went into the final winning product. Hundreds of tracks combined to create a distinctive sound.
Kamra Lyons tells us, "The true nature and the true scale of this opportunity doesn't really dawn on me yet."
Clarke says, "It's really a great opportunity to just see them, their music and their ideas blossom in a nice way, and being given a prompt and being able to execute on a high level is something that's really, really important."
"This is why we teach here," explains Petrin. "Students get these amazing opportunities, and they get to share their music with millions of people."
Zakharenko adds, "It will open a lot of doors. It already has. And I also just think it's pretty cool to say that we work with FIFA."
Gillette Stadium will host seven matches, including one quarter-final, during next year's FIFA World Cup. Deven and Ben's sonic sound will be played at all of them.
Click here to listen to Deven and Ben's sonic sound.