KOZHIKODE: For anyone who grew up in Kozhikode during the 1980s and 90s, the city’s identity was defined by two distinct passions: a fierce borderline religious love for football and a booming homegrown English rock music scene. Over the decades, while the local rock bands faded into history, its obsession with the beautiful game remained untouched.
Now, Mumbai-based composer, singer and sound engineer Salil Hutton — with Kozhikode roots — has bridged those two worlds with his newly released global football anthem, “KISS THE CUP”. Featuring guest vocals by AFLU and produced by Josh and Amy Hutton, the song pairs a fun-filled, foot-tapping Latin samba rhythm with a soaring, stadium-ready chorus designed for massive crowds to sing along “C’mon it’s time to Celebrate, One Cup, One Dream, One Heart, One Game. Kiss the cup and fly away”.
The anthem received its ultimate big-screen moment, when the video was screened before a packed crowd of over 1,200 roaring football fans at the FASSCO big-screen arena, Puthiyapalam. The thunderous reception from the local crowd proved that the track had perfectly captured the Malabar pulse.
“It’s a humble musical tribute to a world beyond borders, colours, and languages, where millions of hearts beat as one for a single passion. We received a very heartening response from the public,” Salil Hutton told TNIE.
The track is a deeply personal homecoming for Hutton. Born and raised in Kozhikode, Hutton’s musical lineage is elite. His late father was a prominent veteran guitarist who shared the stage with legends like M S Baburaj, K J Yesudas and P Jayachandran. Inheriting that musical DNA, Hutton fronted a Kozhikode-based rock band that made waves nationally, even being featured on MTV in 1997. But music wasn’t his only outlet. An ardent football enthusiast, Hutton also wore his city’s colours on the pitch, representing the Malabar Christian College team in the rigorous local A-Division league.
Though he left Kozhikode in 2002 to study sound engineering and eventually moved to Mumbai in 2005, becoming a staple of the national live gig, festival, and studio circuit, the distinct, electric vibe of Malabar’s football crazy crowds never left him. And that exact energy became the blueprint for his new anthem.
It has now been officially released worldwide and is available for fans to stream across YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, bringing Malabar’s unparalleled football spirit to the global digital stage.