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, and based on George Frideric Handel's Zadok the Priest. The complete anthem is about three minutes long, and has two short verses and the chorus. The chorus is in UEFA's three official languages: English, French, and German. The climactic moment is set to the exclamations "italics=no italics=no The champions!" The anthem is played inside the stadium before the start of each UEFA Champions League match, in addition to the beginning and end of television broadcasts of the games. Special vocal versions of the anthem have been performed live at the UEFA Champions League Final. UEFA's official website states, "the anthem is now almost as iconic as the trophy."
Composition
In 1991, UEFA instructed its commercial partner Television Event and Media Marketing to develop new ways of branding the European Cup. This process resulted in the Champions League's anthem, as well as its "starball" logo and distinctive house colours. The anthem was written by English composer Tony Britten in 1992, adapted from George Frideric Händel's anthem Zadok the Priest, which is traditionally performed at the coronation of British monarchs. In a 2013 newspaper interview, Britten stated that "I had a commercials agent and they approached me to write something anthemic and because it was just after The Three Tenors at the World Cup in Italy so classical music was all the rage. Hooliganism was a major, major problem and UEFA wanted to take the game into a completely different area altogether. 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." Britten also mentioned that he does not own the rights to the anthem, which are retained by UEFA, but he receives royalties when it is used. 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. According to Johan Fornäs, the music "makes use of several elements from Handel's original composition, but reshuffles and transforms them to suit the new context". Anthony King writes: Fornäs also gives commentary on the lyrics of the anthem, writing:
Lyrics
Uses
The anthem's chorus is played before each UEFA Champions League game as the two teams are lined up, as well as at the beginning and end of television broadcasts of the matches, and when the winning team lifted the trophy after the final. 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 , Juan Diego Flores , All Angels, Jonas Kaufmann and David Garrett, Mariza, and Nina Maria Fischer and Manuel Gomez Ruiz. In the 2013 final at Wembley Stadium, the chorus was played twice. In the 2018 and 2019 finals, held in Kiev and Madrid respectively, the instrumental version of the chorus was played, by 2Cellos and Asturia Girls. The complete anthem is about three minutes long, and has two short verses and the chorus. In addition to the anthem, there is also entrance music, which contains parts of the anthem itself, which is played as teams enter the field. The anthem has been released commercially in its original version on iTunes and Spotify 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. In 2018, composer Hans Zimmer remixed the anthem with rapper Vince Staples for EA Sports' FIFA video game FIFA 19, with it also featuring in the game's reveal trailer.
