The composer of the Champions League anthem was inspired by one of the coronation tunes of the English monarchy
The UEFA Champions League Anthem, officially titled ‘Champions League’, was composed and arranged by Englishman Tony Britton in 1992, inspired and arranged by George Frideric Handel’s classic piece titled ‘Zadok the Priest’. With the coronation of George II in 1727 and since then, the accession to the throne of all monarchs of the United Kingdom.
Along with ‘The King Shall Rejoice’, ‘My Heart is Inspiring’, and ‘Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened’, ‘Zadok the Priest’ is one of the coronation songs of the British monarchy and bears many similarities to the anthem of the Champions League. . However, the songs in the original composition contain a version of the Biblical account of the anointing of Solomon by the priest Zadok, while the game song talks about the contest itself.
In broad strokes and, in his own words, Tony Britton took “a rising chord phase of Handel” and then wrote his own version; That is to say, both the tunes increase in intensity and in the case of the Champions League, it reaches its climax with the choir singing the name of the competition.
“I had a promotion agent and he approached me to write a hymn, right after The Three Tenors played at the World Cup in Italy 1990, so classical music was in fashion (…) Vandalism was a big problem and UEFA took it Lena wanted to take the game into a completely different area.”
“There is a rising chord phase that I took from Handel and then wrote my own melody. It has a sort of ‘Handelian’ feel to it, but I think it’s not a total rip-off,” Britten told The Croydon Advertiser in 2013. told.
Originally, the anthem was performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields choir for the most prestigious club competition in the world. The lyrics are written in the three official languages ​​of UEFA: English, German and French. Curiously, the top champion of the tournament is Spain’s Real Madrid with 14 titles.
