Jonny Hurst
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Jonny Hurst is England's first Chant Laureate.
Barclaycard set up the competition to choose a Chant Laureate, to 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, 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. The chant, sung to the tune of Barry Manilow's Copacobana, refers to the club's star player, Juan Pablo Angel.
His name is Angel,
And he's a show boy,
An Alice band keeps up his hair,
Juan Pablo from Col-om-bi-air
He came to Villa,
To be a winner,
He succeeded overnight,
Our very own Angel Delight
Just hear the Villa roar,
With each Juan Pablo score,
We've got him on a four-year deal,
But we still want more
At the Villa, at Aston Villa,
The greatest club west of Manila,
At the Villa, at Aston Vi-lla,
Football and passion
All ranges of fashion,
At the Villa, we have it all,
La-la, Aston Vil-la-la,
Aston Vil-la-la-la,
Vil-la-la-la