Every Thursday I Look Back To The Past
In 2020 Dave and Stephen were part of a team that created a new anthem for the Belgian soccer ‘Pro League’. As you might have read in this previous post, Stephen’s really into soccer, so I guess it might have been one of the reasons to take on this project.
In their own words:
‘It was a big challenge for us to make an anthem that has a unique Belgian identity and can also ‘work’ in a stadium as well as on television. We tried to do this by collecting the chants of every team in the Pro League’s supporter groups and then assembling them into a main melody line.’
Belgian sound production agency Sonhouse was also involved and they gave us some more background information on their website:
After a thorough analysis of the brand and the work of branding agency Mirror Mirror, we organized a sound lab with Pro League & Eleven Sports. The result of this workshop was a clearly defined ‘sound ID’, based on the core DNA of this story: closer to football. From that vision we developed the idea to implement the sounds of the fans, the chants in order to let the clubs of the Pro League ‘be heard’ by making it one whole and literally give the fans a united voice.
Furthermore, the analysis of the workshop led us to this synthesis: the sonic branding will on one hand radiate solidarity, dynamism and on the other hand have its own characterful and timeless sound with international allure. For the creation of the anthem based on this concept, we wanted to collaborate with an artist who fits the briefing but is also a football fan himself, enter Soulwax.
The end result is a headstrong anthem that joins ‘competing’ fans this one moment right before kick-off and stays away from the classic orchestral instrumentation found in many other leagues. Listen below:
Since it is important to approach each touchpoint in context, in addition to the stadium version, a broadcast version was also made for the Eleven Pro League channel and the Jupiler partnership. The fan idea fits in perfectly with the Eleven baseline: for the fans.
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