Champions League: the firefighter hymn that stirs the sacred fire

London - Majestic even grandiloquent, the anthem of the Champions League has become the music of football par excellence and excellence through a clever combination of marketing ingredients.

To celebrate a title, there was the eternal tube group Queen, "We are the champions". To announce a competition game of the queen, there is an anthem for November 25, 1992, the first time he sounded in European stadiums, the year of the creation of the Champions League proper.

Recorded by the orchestra of the British Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and chorus of the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, this music brings chills among players which is often a favorite, despite their tastes more likely to the most modern and urban trends.

Cristiano Ronaldo was downright sung as a national anthem before facing Atletico Madrid in the quarter finals of the 2015 edition.

Mamadou Sakho had made his phone ringing in 2012 for the return of PSG C1. "The music of the Champions League, I hear the phone, wake me up with my friends. It's magic for me but for many players who never had the chance to play this competition," had -he started, summarizing the unanimous feeling of the players.

"The anthem of the Champions League is THE reference in terms of music in the world of sport," says AFP Laurent Cochini, consulting director at Its Sixth, leading agency in Europe in the field of music for brands.

- Handel & Elizabeth II -

Crescendo haunting, haunting melody, solemnity given by the choirs and classical style, the hit anthem was composed in 1992 by Briton Tony Britten following guidelines waves of the marketing department of UEFA.

"It was happening terrible things, ill-equipped stadiums, hooligans scary, it was horrible, says Tony Britten AFP. UEFA, to his honor, said that the Champions League should reflect the best of the beautiful game. "

"There was a request in the order of gravity, he explains. It should not give the impression of pop music + + cheap. We had to feel that there is substance."

"It was shortly after the coup of the Three Tenors at the World Cup (1990 in Italy, ed) and classical music had suddenly document says the composer. They wanted something like that, but not soloists, they wanted choirs. "

"We had to offer them something that approaches recalls Tony Britten They listened to the beginning of Zadok the Priest + + Handel and they said:. + This is what we want + ago. an upswing in the hymn of the Champions League which I took to Handel. Then I wrote the lyrics and music a bit in the style of Handel, although the strings are much more modern. "

This work of the famous German composer naturalized British eighteenth century is not any: it is played at every coronation in Britain since George II in 1727 to Elizabeth II in 1953.

- High Mass -

"From a strictly musical point of view, it's an anthem in the first sense of the word. It has a warrior, religious dimension, notes Laurent Cochini With this hymn, football managed to have the religious side, collecting all those are in the stadium. "

"In addition, musically, it is not related to the period to which it was composed, he notes. Musical tastes change all the time, so it is difficult to have consistency. There, it's classical music, so it is not fashionable or unfashionable. "

Nobody really knows the words, in the three official UEFA languages ​​(English, French and German): "These are the best teams / Great teams / A large meeting / They are the best." And fans do not recognize that the past: "The champions !!!"

She "can not be bought or downloaded legally" according to UEFA, but was converted into dollars and cents parts for Tony Britten: royalties allowed him to found his own production of films.