The Erling Haaland rap song that began as a homemade 2016 youth-camp video now has a stranger ending. During Haaland’s American coming-out party, “Kygo Jo” returned as an official Kygo remix and topped Norway’s national singles chart.
How the Erling Haaland rap song started
Haaland wasn’t a rapper before he became a footballer. He had spent years in Bryne’s youth system. He also made his senior debut in Norway’s second tier at 15 before the video appeared later that summer.
He finished his Bryne career with 16 first-team appearances and no goals, while scoring 18 times in 14 reserve matches. By then, he was already a teenage footballer testing himself against adults.
“Kygo Jo” came out of a Norway youth national-team camp. Haaland, Erik Botheim and Erik Tobias Sandberg had finished training and needed something to fill the rest of the day. Sandberg was good at producing rhymes. Botheim took the role of rapper, and Haaland received the long verse. They called themselves Flow Kingz, with Haaland performing as Lyng.
Polish was never the point. Haaland appears in an emoji-covered hoodie, tends a grill, moves around a garden and jumps on a trampoline. He also poses on a tiny red vehicle. His Bryne background was equally active. He played football a year above his age group and stayed in handball, athletics and cross-country skiing into his early teens.
Before his body caught up, Haaland relied on intelligent movement against older players. The Erling Haaland rap song stayed online as a record of that period: playful, rough and completely separate from the machine he later became.
Flow Kingz never publicly followed “Kygo Jo” with another original song. Haaland moved from Bryne to Molde, Salzburg, Dortmund and Manchester City while the video remained online. In 2020, he made one playful prediction about its future: “Yeah, hopefully one day I will have a song at the top in Norway.” In the same interview, he said becoming a professional footballer had always been his dream.
Two goals brought Lyng back
Kygo eventually supplied the condition. Before Norway faced Brazil in the World Cup round of 16, the Norwegian producer said he would release a remix if Haaland scored. Haaland’s late double sent Norway past Brazil. The goals came in the 79th and 90th minutes of a 2-1 victory that carried Norway into its first men’s World Cup quarterfinal.
Kygo released “Kygo Jo (feat. Lyng) [Kygo Remix]” two days after the match. The official recording credits Kygo, Flow Kingz and JMK, with Lyng also listed as an artist. Haaland wasn’t presented as a solo musician. Instead, his teenage performance became attached to a formal release from the producer named in the original song.
The remix reached No. 1 on Norway’s official Topplista singles chart, which ranks the country’s most popular tracks across streaming and downloads. Haaland’s 2020 line had become a literal chart result.
There was no abandoned music career waiting to be rediscovered. Haaland made one public rap song with two youth teammates while his football development was already accelerating. Nearly a decade later, football supplied the audience, the occasion and the promise that brought it back.
His two goals against Brazil completed the chain. The one-song experiment reached No. 1 in Norway, and the Erling Haaland rap song became part of his World Cup story.
