At exactly noon today, people around the world blew their Vuvuzelas, whistled and honked their horns to celebrate the first Fifa World Cup in Africa, due to kick off in just two days.
It was called the “Vuvuzela Moment” and it was celebrated in equal style online as it was offline. Tweeters in South Africa and across the world came to the party in fine style, causing the phrase “Vuvuzela” to trend on the world-famous social networking and microblogging service as fans across the world spoke about and blew their virtual Vuvuzelas in 140 characters.
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According to Fifa the Vuvuzela Moment officially caused the “first ever” World Cup-related trending topic on Twitter.
The official Fifa World Cup (TM) Twitter account, FIFAWorldCupTM, with around 57 000 followers, joined the action, tweeting “thank you South Africa” and claiming that “the first World cup related trending topic on twitter has arrived! the #Vuvuzela is a trending topic…”. A few tweeters were also quick to point out to Fifa that “Benni” and “Bafana” (player and South African national soccer squad nickname) had also previously trended.
World-wide reaction
International popstar Shakira, who sings the official World Cup song, tweeted: “There is so much excitement on the streets of South Africa today! ShakiraHQ http://twitpic.com/1v8xmm”
Local DJ, and confessed Twitterholic DJ Fresh couldn’t hide his excitement, tweeting: “IT IS OFFICIALLY VUVEZELA MOMENT!!!! PWO PWO PWO PWOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! 🙂 #WC2010 #FEELit”
Dutch soccer star Ryan Babel, who is in the country training with his squad, tweeted this photo and had just this to say: “Woowwwwwww”
People from around the country and abroad joined the Tweetfest:
“blowing my vuvuzela..!” wrote koutie1
“The sound of the vuvuzela is the only thing that can be heard from space,” tweeted khayadlanga
“South Africa united for soccer. Beautiful! #Vuvuzela” wrote jamaal_jayz
“Wow! Go Vuvuzela’s – that it the loudest support for the world cup I have heard todate :)” wrote GreenKidsSA
“‘Vuvuzela’ is a trending topic on twitter – South Africa you ROCK!! http://bit.ly/aeCfoa” exclaimed 5FM, a national radio station.
“So proud to be south african today, vuvuzela moment was unreal! #swc http://twitpic.com/1v8pi7” tweeted @roxbradnick
“South Africa is officially the loudest place on earth right now”, wrote @Cherryflava
Radio personality Aki Anastasiou took this aerial picture of people gathering in the streets in Sandton to blow their Vuvuzelas, tweeting: “United We Shall Stand. Thousands of people! UNBELIEVABLE SCENES! #WC2010”
More about the Vuvuzela
A Vuvuzela is a blowing horn, approximately one metre in length, blown mainly by fans at soccer matches in South Africa. Vuvuzelas have even attracted some criticism because of how loud they can be, especially when blown in unison — with some medical experts warning of potential damage to hearing. More about Vuvuzelas, here.
