When you hear ‘Live is life’ from rock band Opus, you spontaneously think of Maradona. To the tones of the world hit, the Argentinian masterfully juggles his laces open. Thank you to Frank Raes. The VRT journalist edited the video that has now been viewed tens of millions of times on YouTube. Worldwide. “You smile spontaneously when you see it,” says Raes.
On April 19, 1989 Napoli played the return of the semi-finals of the Uefa Cup against Bayern. Frank Raes was then in the Olympic stadium in Munich. During the warm-up, ‘Live is life’ echoed when Maradona started juggling. The camera zoomed in and it was shown on the big screens. Everyone was sucked into those images. ‘I stood there together with Frank Arnesen – who then worked for Danish TV – mesmerized to watch,’ says Raes. “Maradona already won the match there, everyone was so impressed.”
The images were not broadcast live. Raes requested them from the German channel ZDF that had captured the match. Strangely enough, ZDF has never done anything with it. The then BRTN paid a fair price for it and they sent me that video cassette. It was with me for a while, but ahead Sports weekend and a documentary about Maradona I made use of it. It was not Opus himself who performed, but a cover band. Maradona played with the ball for three songs, but I selected his best moves, cut and pasted that to 2.30 minutes and edited everything to the notes of Live is life.’
The rest is history. The Dutch channel NOS took over and once Youtube was there it went very fast. The mother montage has often been copied, but if you add all the versions together, the video has already been viewed tens of millions of times.
‘If I had received ten cents for every view, I would now be in Hawaii and I would be very rich,’ laughs Raes. “ If Messi now runs through a player, the world will see it within the hour. Then those were unique images. Maradona never tied his shoes during the warm up and knew well that he was being filmed. It shows what genius he was. That rhythm… You smile spontaneously when you look at it. ‘
Still in Napoli
Maradona outclassed guard Stefan Reuter that day and Napoli won the Uefa Cup later that year. ‘Live is life is now – more than thirty years later – still played during every warm-up in Napoli, ‘concludes Frank Raes. ‘Just ask Dries Mertens. The Austrian band Opus therefore also became very popular in South America and made good money with that song. I look back on it with pleasure. ‘
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