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A football chant, also referred to as a terrace chant, is a term that refers to songs or chants sung at football matches. They can be historic, dating back to the formation of the club, adaptions of popular songs, or spontaneous reactions to events on the pitch. They are one of the last remaining sources of an oral folk song tradition in the United Kingdom.[1] Traditions vary from country to country and from team to team, but they are generally used either to encourage the home team or to slight the opposition.
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Club-specific chants and songs
A few football teams also have songs which are traditionally sung by their fans, notably Liverpool's "You'll Never Walk Alone",[2] West Ham United's "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles", Manchester City's "Blue Moon", Rangers' "Follow Follow", Birmingham City's "Keep Right On To The End Of The Road", Bristol Rovers' "Goodnight, Irene", and Burnley's "The Wild Rover" (No Nay Never).
Chant Laureate
On 11 May 2004, Jonny Hurst was chosen as England's first "Chant Laureate". Barclaycard set up the competition to choose a Chant Laureate, to be paid £10,000 to tour Premier League stadia and compose chants for the 2004-05 football season. The judging panel was chaired by the Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, who said "What we felt we were tapping into was a huge reservoir of folk poetry."[3]
Notes
- ^ Chris Roberts, Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind Rhyme, Thorndike Press,2006 (ISBN 0-7862-8517-6)
- ^ Liverpool vs Leeds United, British Broadcasting Corporation, F.A. Cup Final, 1965. The song was covered by Liverpool group Gerry & The Pacemakers in 1963. At this time, supporters standing on the Spion Kop terrace at Anfield began singing popular chart songs of the day. The mood was captured on camera by a BBC Panorama camera crew in 1964. One year later, when Liverpool faced Leeds in the FA Cup final, the travelling Kop sang the same song and match commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme commended the "Liverpool signature tune".
- ^ "Football's first Chant Laureate". BBC News. 2004-05-11. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3702313.stm. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
External links
- Fantastic fan shows and chants
- All Premiership/Championship/League Chants - over 20,000 chants
- A collection of football chants - rate or submit your favourite football chants
- Barclaycard Chant Laureate: A selection of the finalists
- Fanchants.com - a collection of over 2000 football chants
- Videos of football chants
- FCSongs.com A collection of football club songs
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