UEFA Champions League Anthem

UEFA Champions League Anthem
Music sample
Official anthem of UEFA Champions League
Also known as	Champions League
Lyrics	Tony Britten, 1992
Music	Tony Britten, 1992
Adopted	1992

The UEFA Champions League Anthem

The UEFA Champions League Anthem, officially titled simply as "Champions League", is the official anthem of the UEFA Champions League, written by English composer Tony Britten in 1992.^[1]^[2]

Composition

In 1992, UEFA commissioned Tony Britten to arrange an anthem for the UEFA Champions League which commenced in August 1992. He composed a 'serious' classical piece, in a style similar to some of George Frideric Händel's works. The composition is heavily influenced by Händel's Zadok the Priest. Tony Britten acknowledged that "there's a rising string phase which I pinched from Händel and then I wrote my own tune. It has a kind of Händelian feel to it but I like to think it's not a total rip-off".^[3] For the recording used in television transmissions of UEFA Champions League matches and events, the piece was performed by London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and sung by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chorus.^[1] The chorus is in UEFA's three official languages: English, French, and German.

Uses

The anthem's chorus is played before each UEFA Champions League game, as well as at the beginning and end of television broadcasts of the matches. Special vocal versions have been performed live at the Champions League final with lyrics in other languages, changing over to the host country's language for the chorus. These versions were performed by Andrea Bocelli (Italian) (Rome 2009), Juan Diego Flores (Peruvian) (Madrid 2010), All Angels (Wembley 2011), Jonas Kaufmann and David Garrett (Munich 2012), and Mariza (Lisbon 2014, unlike the previous final performer, Mariza sang the main lyric of the anthem). In 2013 final at Wembley Stadium, the chorus had played twice.

The complete anthem is about three minutes long, and has two short verses and the chorus. The anthem has been released commercially in its original version on iTunes with the title of Champions League Theme. Also, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields chorus can be heard singing the influential piece "Zadok the Priest" on the 2002 album World Soccer Anthems.^[4]

References

1 2 UEFA Champions League anthem UEFA.com. Retrieved March 6, 2011
↑ Media, democracy and European culture p.129. Intellect Books, 2009. Retrieved March 6, 2011
↑ "Meet the Croydon man who wrote Champions League theme". Croydon Advertiser. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
↑ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r591944

External links

UEFA Champions League anthem on the UEFA home page

European Cup and UEFA Champions League

European Cup era, 1955–1992

Seasons	1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92

Finals	1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992

Champions League era, 1992–present

Seasons	1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18

Finals	1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

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UEFA Champions League Anthem

Composition

Uses

See also

References

External links