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How Erling Haaland’s forgotten teen rap ‘Kygo Jo’ became Norway’s No. 1 hit after World Cup
A rap video Erling Haaland made with fellow Norway youth internationals Erik Botheim and Erik Tobias Sandberg when he was 15 has become a viral hit nearly a decade later.
- PUBLISHED: Mon 13 Jul 2026, 12:59 PM
A rap song Erling Haaland recorded with two friends as a 15 year old has unexpectedly become one of Norway's biggest hits nearly a decade after it was first uploaded.
Long before he was one of football's most feared strikers, Haaland formed a rap trio with fellow Norway youth internationals Erik Botheim and Erik Tobias Sandberg.
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The three friends, who all went on to become professional footballers, performed as Flow Kingz.
The group released a homemade music video for "Kygo Jo," featuring the teenagers rapping while flipping burgers on a grill, dancing around, and posing on a toy car.
The video attracted little attention when it was first released and was largely forgotten for years before resurfacing online during the World Cup.
Norwegian DJ Kygo publicly promised he would remix the song if Haaland scored against Brazil in Norway's Round of 16 match.
Haaland delivered in spectacular fashion, scoring twice as Norway claimed a historic 2-1 victory to reach its first-ever World Cup quarterfinal.
True to his word, Kygo released the remix just two days later.
The remix quickly climbed to No. 1 on Spotify in Norway, while the original music video exploded in popularity, surpassing 23 million views on YouTube as fans around the world discovered Haaland's unexpected musical past.
Haaland later posted:
"Does this mean I'm officially an artist now?"
What started as three teenagers having fun during a Norway youth team camp, never imagining that one of them would become one of the biggest football stars in the world, has turned into an unlikely viral success, with their homemade music video finding a global audience almost a decade later.
Although Norway's World Cup journey ended with a quarterfinal defeat to England, Haaland leaves the tournament with more than just his performances on the pitch to remember. While leading his country on its best ever World Cup run, he also found himself topping the music charts thanks to a song he made as a teenager.
Most players are lucky to have one memorable story during a World Cup. Erling Haaland somehow had several and it was only his first World Cup.
Mariam Alrashdi is a lifestyle and entertainment reporter at Khaleej Times, with a focus on local trends, Emirati culture, and the arts.