Also known as Champions League Music Tony Britten, 1992 | Lyrics Tony Britten, 1992 Adopted 1992 | |
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.
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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 Handel and then I wrote my own tune. It has a kind of Handelian feel to it but I like to think it's not a total rip-off". 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. 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) and (Milan 2016), 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 performers, 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.