Jonny Hurst (born 11 June 1966), originally from Solihull, Birmingham, latterly

Wanstead Wanstead () is a town in East London, England, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It borders South Woodford to the north, Redbridge, London, Redbridge to the east and Forest Gate to the south, with Leytonstone and Walthamstow to the west. It is ...

, north London, is England's first (and to date only) Chant Laureate. Barclaycard set up the competition to choose a Chant Laureate, who would be paid £10,000 to tour Premiership stadiums and compose football chants for the 2004–5 football season. The judging panel was chaired by the Poet Laureate,

Andrew Motion Sir Andrew Motion (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and audio reco ...

, who said "What we felt we were tapping into was a huge reservoir of folk poetry." Ironically, Hurst, a Birmingham City fan, composed the winning entry about Birmingham's local rivals

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

. The chant, sung to the tune of

Barry Manilow Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus; June 17, 1943) is an American singer and songwriter with a career that spans seven decades. His hit recordings include "Could It Be Magic", " Somewhere Down the Road", " Mandy", "I Write the Songs", " Can ...

's '' Copacabana'', refers to that club's star player,

Juan Pablo Ángel Juan Pablo Ángel Arango (born 24 October 1975) is a Colombian former footballer who last played as a striker for Atlético Nacional in Categoría Primera A. He began his career at Nacional, whom he helped to win the championship in 1994, an ...

. Some 1,500 people applied for the role. A veteran of the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

and the

Canal Cafe Theatre The Canal Cafe Theatre is a 60-seat fringe theatre venue in Little Venice, London, specialising in comedy performances. Location The theatre is above the Bridge House pub on the corner of Westbourne Terrace Road and Delamere Terrace, at the meeti ...

NewsRevue, Jonny Hurst is both a comedy writer and a lawyer. He published his first book, 'Becoming a Lawyer', in July 2013.

References

1966 births Living people Association football songs and chants People from Wanstead {{England-footy-bio-stub