On 29 May 2022, a day after their fourteenth European Cup, Real Madrid's players finished a lap of honour inside a packed Santiago Bernabéu and sang “Hala Madrid y nada más” with the crowd. The club's own report of that evening records the moment. It is the song most people mean by the Real Madrid anthem. It is not the club's first.
Here is how Madrid's two great songs came about, who made them and where to hear them legally. As with our pieces on Manchester United and Liverpool, we tell the story and leave the words to the records.
Real Madrid anthem at a glance
| Classic anthem | “¡Hala Madrid!”, a pasodoble march from the early 1950s |
| Classic anthem singer | José de Aguilar, a tenor from Tomelloso |
| Centenary anthem | 2002, written by José María Cano, sung by Plácido Domingo |
| Modern anthem | “Hala Madrid y nada más”, presented on 25 May 2014 |
| Music and lyrics (2014) | Nadir Khayat (RedOne); lyrics by journalist Manuel Jabois |
| Original performers (2014) | The first-team squad and Carlo Ancelotti |
| Plácido Domingo version | Recorded December 2014, released May 2016 |
The old song: a pasodoble for the golden jubilee
Start with the date, because even that is disputed.
English-language references tie the first “¡Hala Madrid!” to the club's golden jubilee in 1952, commissioned under president Santiago Bernabéu and written by Luis Cisneros Galiane, while Libertad Digital, which has researched the record in some depth, dates the recording to 1953 and credits the lyrics to Villegas and the music to Marino, a well-known composer of pasodobles. Both accounts agree on the voice. José de Aguilar, a young tenor from Tomelloso, sang it.
The Spanish outlet adds a detail that Madrid supporters rarely hear. According to its account, the commission came from a supporters' group called El Club, based on calle de la Victoria, which paid the singer 5,000 pesetas. Aguilar was not a football man and was never invited to club events.
The song is often called “Las mocitas madrileñas”, after one of its lines. It never went away. Goal's Spanish edition notes it is still sung in the south stand and at title celebrations, and flamenco singer José Mercé later recorded a slower version.
From the centenary to La Décima
For the club's centenary in 2002, Madrid added a second anthem. José María Cano, a founder of the pop group Mecano, wrote it and Plácido Domingo recorded it.
It was not meant to replace the old pasodoble.
The bigger change came twelve years later. Nadir Khayat, the Moroccan-Swedish producer known as RedOne, and a Madrid fan, built the tune on a flight between Madrid and Morocco in 2010 and recorded the orchestral part in Sweden; president Florentino Pérez asked for a song, journalist Manuel Jabois cut his longer draft to fit, and in April 2014 the squad, from Cristiano Ronaldo and Iker Casillas to Sergio Ramos, Gareth Bale and Luka Modrić, went into PKO Studios with Ancelotti to sing it.
The club presented “Hala Madrid y nada más” at the party for La Décima, the tenth European Cup won in Lisbon. Its own report quotes RedOne saying he wanted not a hymn but “a song that everybody performs”. Pérez predicted that fans would sing it “outside and inside the stadium”. He was right. The single reached number one in Spain in 2014 and topped the iTunes chart there and in 17 other countries.
Domingo later recorded his own version, in December 2014. It came out in May 2016, after La Undécima, and is the one often heard at matches now.
In June 2024, reports spread that RedOne was writing a new anthem. He denied them. Morocco World News reported that his Instagram post was only a thank-you to Pérez for the chance to be part of the club's history.
Where to listen legally
Both songs are easy to find without dodgy downloads.
On licensed services such as Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube Music, look for the 2014 single credited to Real Madrid and RedOne. The old song is credited to José de Aguilar. Shazam recognises the Aguilar recording. Streaming official versions pays the people who made them. A free MP3 from an unknown site does not. We do not host MP3 files or reproduce lyrics.
Our view: why Madrid's song travels to Nigeria
Madrid's link with Nigeria is not only about the television.
On 28 May 2018, CAF president Ahmad Ahmad laid the foundation stone of a Real Madrid academy at the Yakubu Gowon Stadium in Port Harcourt, a project initiated by Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike, with Iñigo Arenillas of the Real Madrid Foundation in attendance. In October 2019 Wike and Enrique Sánchez, the Foundation's executive vice president, signed a ratification agreement. Sánchez said the Foundation “will continue to partner” with the state on training Rivers children. You can read more about it in our guide to the Real Madrid football academy in Port Harcourt.
So the song has a Nigerian echo. For more, read about the only Nigerian who played for Real Madrid and compare Madrid's story with the Manchester United anthem and the Liverpool anthem.
This article was most recently revised and updated 9 seconds ago
