UEFA Champions League anthem
| UEFA Champions League | |
|---|---|
| Usage period | 1992 until today |
| text | Tony Britten |
| melody | Tony Britten , adapted from Georg Friedrich Händel |
The UEFA Champions League anthem is the official anthem of the UEFA Champions League . It was composed in 1992 by the English composer Tony Britten and is based on Georg Friedrich Handel's Zadok The Priest from the Coronation Anthems . The last two stanzas of the anthem are played in the stadium before the start of each Champions League game and act as an intro and outro for the television broadcast.
Emergence
As part of the renaming of the European Champion's Cup to today's UEFA Champions League and the associated rebranding of the competition, UEFA commissioned British composer Tony Britten to compose a Champions League anthem in 1992 . Due to the popularity of the ensemble The Three Tenors after their appearance at the 1990 World Cup , Britten was instructed to write something "serious" and "classical". Britton based the piece on an ascending string melody from Zadok The Priest by Georg Friedrich Handel . In a newspaper interview in 2013 he stated that the anthem has a "Handelian feel", but that he does not see it as pure plagiarism ("I like to think it's not a total rip-off") . The text mixes elements of the three official UEFA languages English , French and German and, according to Johan Fornäs , a Swedish professor of media and communication studies, symbolizes the "strength" and "size" of the competition and the participating teams.
The work was recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and sung by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields choir .
song lyrics
Ce sont les meilleures équipes
They are the very best teams
The main event
The champions
The best
Les grandes équipes
The champions
Une grande réunion
A big sporting event
The main event
Ils sont les meilleurs
They are the best
These are the champions
The masters
The best
Les grandes équipes
The champions
The champions
The best
Les grandes équipes
The champions
Special versions
Since 2009, special versions of the anthem have been performed live at the finals of the Champions League. Often the text is sung by international opera stars in the language of the host country.
| final | place | Specialty |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Rome , Italy | Italian version, sung by Andrea Bocelli |
| 2010 | Madrid , Spain | Spanish version, sung by Juan Diego Flórez |
| 2011 | London , UK | Sung by All Angels |
| 2012 | Munich , Germany | Original version including passages in Italian and Spanish , sung by Jonas Kaufmann , violin accompaniment by David Garrett |
| 2013 | London , UK | Last stanza twice |
| 2014 | Lisbon , Portugal | Sung by Mariza |
| 2015 | Berlin , Germany | Sung by Nina Maria Fischer and Manuel Gomez Ruiz |
| 2016 | Milan , Italy | Italian version, sung by Andrea Bocelli |
| 2017 | Cardiff , Wales | Italian version, sung by Andrea Bocelli |
| 2018 | Kiev , Ukraine | Instrumental version played by 2Cellos |
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Chris Hughes: From Handel to Hala Madrid: music of champions. In: UEFA.com. January 8, 2015, accessed May 13, 2019 .
- ^ A b Andrew Jameson: Meet the Croydon man who wrote the Champions League theme. In: thisiscroydontoday.co.uk. August 31, 2013, accessed May 13, 2019 .
- ↑ a b UEFA.com: UEFA Champions League - UEFA Champions League anthem. Retrieved May 13, 2019 .
- ↑ Johan Fornaes: Signifying Europe. (PDF; 2.21 MB) 2012, p. 186 , accessed on May 13, 2019 (English).
- ↑ Jonas Warrer: The Best Vocal Versions of the Champions League Anthem. September 9, 2016, accessed May 13, 2019 .