Ligue 1 Symphony

One of the things that makes sporting events great is their anthem. In football, the UEFA Champions League is notably known for its epic theme.

Two years ago, Prime Video became the official broadcaster of the “Ligue 1 Uber Eats”, the top French football league, and decided to create an original composition for it. But when you are an entertainment platform, it cannot be done like any other anthem.

During football matches, the show is not just on the field. It is also on the sidelines where coaches make all kind of gestures to give instructions to the players. Coaches are directing players like music conductors do with their musicians. Therefore, to create this special anthem Prime Video turned coaches into music conductors.

Introducing the Ligue 1 Symphony
To do it, Prime Video first filmed each coach during league matches and collected hours of movement. From this footage the French composer, Saycet, selected the most inspirational gestures as the basis for the anthem.

Saycet: "It was really their movements that inspired the composition. And that was the whole challenge of this project: creating music from the coaches’ gestures. I classified them into different types: dynamic, calm, enthusiastic, and so on... After that, my imagination did the rest."

To perform this piece of music Prime Video created a unique setting in the auditorium of the “Espace Niemeyer” in Paris. 70 musicians and a choir faced a monolithic screen that stood in place of the traditional conductor. Upon it played the footage. In this way, the orchestra was led by the coaches.

Salomé, violinist: “For us musicians, it was really a first. It was unsettling at first. But very quickly, we got caught up in the game and followed their instructions… like the players on the pitch."

The anthem was launched for “le Classique”, the most watched game of the league between the old rivals Marseille and Paris. The video was broadcast live on Prime Video before the kick-off. The video will be then played in every stadium of the league.

Julien Vergne & Alexandre Girod, creatives at Marcel: “To share the passion of Ligue 1 we were inspired to create a piece of music. Often, it’s the coach who sets the tempo and rhythm of the match with their gestures. It was clear that we could extend this to music and have them lead musicians as well. The orchestra interpreted the coaches’ movements into song to express the energy of the game to the audience."

The operation has been created and piloted by Marcel Paris and produced by Allso production company.