The explanation for one of the most commonly used expressions when a team wins the First Division title.
When a team is on the verge of winning the league title, it is said to be close to “singing the alirón”. But what does that expression mean? That is exactly what we are going to tell you in this article. What is the reason for using this colloquial expression generated in the sports field, and especially in football?
What does ‘sing de alirón’ mean and why is it said when a team wins La Liga in Spain?
Because the term is very popular ‘aliron’ and the expression ‘sing the aliron’, it is not entirely clear when he started using it. In fact, there are several very different theories about its possible origin.
According to the specialized site Fundu (Emergency Spanish Foundation), consisting of EFE Agency and the BBVA bank, one of the theories of this word was born in the 19th century, when British miners working on the coast of the Basque Country marked the veins containing only iron, wrote on them “all iron” (all iron) and for which they were economically rewarded due to the purity of the mineral. From then on, the word became associated with the holidays and was so kneaded in Spanish that it became ‘alirón’.
Another theory goes back to 1913, the year when dancer and singer Marietina, one of the stars of the moment, premiered a song entitled “El Alirón,” whose lyrics read:
“In Madrid, the song of the alirón is fashionable,
and there is no one in Madrid who does not know this song,
because the girls don’t deliver anymore
to a brave’s heart
if you don’t know how to make them fall in love while singing the alirón.
Aliron! Aliron! Move, move, move, move!”
In that year the followers of the Athletic Bilbao they formed the lyrics to read “Alirón! Alirón! Athletic Champion!” and later the word in question became popular in the rest of the Spanish teams.
Other sources point out that the term comes from a song popularized by cupletista Teresita Zazá in the first decade of the 20th century and entitled ‘La Canción del Alirón’ (lyrics by Álvaro Retana and music by Gaspar Aquino). The term alirón was used in the composition because it was a variation of the word ‘alón’, from the French ‘allons’, the literal meaning of which is the exclamation ‘let’s go!’ was, among other things, used in the army to incite or encourage the troops. This explanation may be the closest to the true origin.
On the other hand, the Royal Spanish Academy included the word in 2001 and refers to Arabism as al’il’lān (“proclamation”), although this statement was dropped in 2014 and replaced by an “expression of unknown origin.”
Source: Goal