3 hours ago
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ByTasnim Chowdhury
BBC Sport journalist
It is one of the most recognisable anthems in sport - but where did the Champions League anthem come from?
The anthem was written by British composer Tony Britten in 1992 to mark the Champions League rebrand from the European Cup.
Britten was inspired by George Frideric Handel's Zadok the Priest, which is traditionally played at the coronation of British monarchs.
The inspiration helped him create the iconic football anthem, sung by the Academy of Saint Martin and performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
"Uefa wanted this competition to be about the best of football rather than the worst and said they must have an anthem," Britten told the BBC in 2020.
"The World Cup in Italy had just had the three tenors so classical music was all the rage."
The full anthem is around three minutes long and includes two short verses and a chorus. It is played before every match after both teams have lined up.
"At the time we made this we had no idea it was going to become as big as it has," Britten said.
The Champions League anthem has over 24 million streams on Spotify.
What are the lyrics?
The Champions League lyrics are a mix of three official Uefa languages - English, French and German.
The words emphasise the unique experience and prestige of the competition, which sets the atmosphere before each game.
During the process of creating the anthem, Uefa did not have words prepared so composer Britten built lyrics from superlatives.
'The greatest', 'the best', 'the masters', 'the main event', 'the champions' were translated to Uefa's three languages to form the lyrics.
"It all came together in a matter of weeks and the actual composing process was just a matter of days," he said.
Full Champions League anthem
Ce sont les meilleures equipes
Es sind die allerbesten Mannschaften
The main event
Die Meister
Die Besten
Les grandes equipes
The champions
Une grande reunion
Eine grosse sportliche Veranstaltung
The main event
Die Meister
Die Besten
Les grandes equipes
The champions
Ils sont les meilleurs
Sie sind die Besten
These are the champions
Die Meister
Die Besten
Les grandes equipes
The champions
Has the anthem changed?
The Champions League proposed a rebrand in 2024 which included a new format and an evolved identity for the new generation of football fans.
To mark this, original composter Britten refined the anthem and re-recorded the music with a hand-picked orchestra and the Tenebrae choir.
The new version is slightly faster and more vocals focussed, but the iconic lyrics remain unchanged.
The current Europa League anthem was created by music brand agency MassiveMusic and introduced at the start of the 2018-19 season.
It is the third anthem to be used since the competition rebranded from the Uefa Cup in 2009.
It is also played at Conference League matches since its introduction in 2021.
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