The Welsh Rugby Union asked Max to write and perform a special song to celebrate his legendary hit, Hyms and Arias, being sung at the Millennium Stadium, Principality Stadium, Cardiff Arms Park and, on significant occasions, Wembley Stadium for the last 50 years.
The invitation to the iconic bard is fitting, due to his long association with Welsh rugby, as Principality Stadium prepares to enter its own 25th Anniversary season.
When it was first sung, in the early 1970s, it was written that those great Welsh hymns Cwm Rhondda and Calon Lan had found a companion and Max had joined the elite band of folk heroes produced by the Valleys of South Wales.
He will sing this new song accompanied by choirs Côr Llundain and Admiral Superchoir and the Band of the Royal Welsh at Principality Stadium immediately before kick off on Mother’s Day, Sunday 10th March a fact that was not lost on him when he wrote the lyrics.
Max also refers to Daffodils, Dublin and Dupont during his new verses, but he is keeping the actual lyrics top secret until matchday, when the 70,000-strong Welsh crowd will be the first to hear it.
“We are sure he will lift the passionate Welsh crowd in the same way he did at Wembley in 1999,” said Principality Stadium manager Mark Williams.
“We said farewell to Wembley and to that foreign climb next year we are back in Cardiff, if they finish it on time.’ Was such an insightful lyric at the time.
“We didn’t know if, what we now know as Principality Stadium, would be ready for the 1999 Rugby World Cup, it was still a building site and Max was cutting through all of the noise around it and pointing that out, like he always does.
“Of course it was ready and Max was an integral part of the opening ceremony, so we are delighted to welcome back an old friend of Welsh rugby as we approach our own 25th anniversary year.”
Max Boyce added: “It’s a privilege to sing with the greatest rugby crowd in the world, in the greatest stadium.
“It took me a long time to write this and I hope it will be well received. This is an exciting young Welsh team and I look forward to, again, being a part of showing them just how much they mean to us.”
Max Boyce will sing live on the stadium’s new state-of-the-art sound system, utilising the high-tech big screens, after the players’ warm-up and immediately before the anthems. This will be the first and, because of the topicality of the lyrics, most likely the only time this new version of Hyms and Arias will be heard.
Fans of Max and Wales can still buy tickets to the game, available in very limited numbers, from www.wru.wales/tickets
