Anational anthem is apatrioticmusical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of acountry ornation.[1] The majority of national anthems aremarches orhymns in style. Some countries that are devolved into multiple constituent states have their own official musical compositions for them (such as with theUnited Kingdom and theSoviet Union); their constituencies' songs are sometimes referred to as national anthems even though they are notsovereign states.
In 1795, theFrench First Republic adoptedLa Marseillaise as its national anthem by decree, making France the first country in history to have an official national anthem.[2] Some anthems are older in origin but were not officially adopted until the 19th or 20th century. For example, the lyrics of the Japanese national anthem,Kimigayo, were taken from aHeian period (794–1185) poem, but were not set to music until 1880.[3] The national anthem of the Netherlands, theWilhelmus, contains a melody and lyrics dating back to the 16th century, but it was not officially adopted as the country's national anthem until 1932.[4]
Early version of the "Wilhelmus" as preserved in a manuscript of 1617 (Brussels,Royal Library, MS 15662, fol. 37v–38r)[5]
"Il Canto degli Italiani" was written byGoffredo Mameli and set to music byMichele Novaro in 1847,[6] currently used as the national anthem of Italy. The song was very popular duringItalian unification and the following decades. However, after theKingdom of Italy's 1861 proclamation, therepublican andJacobin connotations of "Il Canto degli Italiani" were difficult to reconcile with the new state's monarchic constitution. The kingdom chose instead "Marcia Reale" (Royal March), theHouse of Savoy's official anthem, composed by order of KingCharles Albert of Sardinia in 1831. After theWorld War II, Italybecame a republic. On 12 October 1946, it chose "Il Canto degli Italiani" as a provisional national anthem. The song would retain this role asde facto anthem of the Italian Republic, and after several unsuccessful attempts, gainedde jure status on 4 December 2017.
TheOlympic Charter of 1920 introduced the ritual of playing the national anthems of the gold medal winners. From this time, the playing of national anthems became increasingly popular at international sporting events, creating an incentive for such nations that did not yet have an officially defined national anthem to introduce one.[a]
The United States introduced the patriotic songThe Star-Spangled Banner as a national anthem in 1931. Following this, several nations moved to adopt as official national anthem patriotic songs that had already been inde facto use at official functions, such as Mexico (Mexicanos, al grito de guerra, composed 1854, adopted 1943) and Switzerland ("Swiss Psalm", composed 1841,de facto use from 1961, adopted 1981).
By the period ofdecolonisation in the 1960s, it had become common practice for newly independent nations to adopt an official national anthem. Some of these anthems were specifically commissioned, such as the anthem of Kenya,Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu, produced by a dedicated "Kenyan Anthem Commission" in 1963.[7]
A number of nations remain without an official national anthem adoptedde jure. In these cases, there are establishedde facto anthems played at sporting events or diplomatic receptions. These include the United Kingdom (God Save the King) and Sweden (Du gamla, Du fria; the country also has a royal anthem,Kungssangen). Countries that have moved to officially adoptde iure their long-standingde facto anthems since the 1990s include: Luxembourg (Ons Heemecht, adopted 1993), South Africa (National anthem of South Africa, adopted 1997) and Israel (Hatikvah, composed 1888,de facto use from 1948, adopted 2004).
Star-Spangled Banner with the American flag (ca. 1940s). Anthems used duringsign-on and sign-off sequences have become less common due to the increasing prevalence of 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week broadcasting.
National anthems are used in a wide array of contexts. Certain etiquette may be involved in the playing of a country's anthem. These usually involve military honours, standing up, removing headwear etc. In diplomatic situations the rules may be very formal. There may also beroyal anthems,presidential anthems,state anthems etc. for special occasions.
They are played onnational holidays and festivals, and have also come to be closely connected with sporting events. Wales was the first country to adopt this, during arugby game against New Zealand in 1905. Since then during sporting competitions, such as theOlympic Games, the national anthem of thegold medal winner is played at eachmedal ceremony; also played before games in many sports leagues, since being adopted in baseball during World War II.[8] When teams from two nations play each other, the anthems of both nations are played, the host nation's anthem being played last.
In some countries, the national anthem is played to students each day at the start and/or end of school as an exercise in patriotism, such as in Tanzania.[9] In other countries the state anthem may be played in a theatre before a play or in a cinema before a movie. Many radio and television stations have adopted this and play the national anthem when theysign on in the morning and again when theysign off at night. For instance, the national anthem of China is played before the broadcast of evening news on Hong Kong's local television stations includingTVB Jade.[10] In Colombia, it is a law to play theNational Anthem at 6:00 and 18:00 on every public radio and television station, while in Thailand, "Phleng Chat Thai" is played at 08:00 and 18:00 nationwide (theRoyal Anthem is used for sign-ons and closedowns instead),also in Indonesia,Indonesia Raya is played at 06:00 on nationaltelevision networks started from December 11, 2024 as mandated by presidentPrabowo Subianto,[11] whileTVRI is the only national television that played it twice at 06:00 and 18:00. The use of a national anthem outside of its country, however, is dependent on the international recognition of that country. For instance, Taiwan has not beenrecognized by theInternational Olympic Committee as a separate nation since 1979 and must compete asChinese Taipei; its "National Banner Song" is used instead of itsnational anthem.[12] In Taiwan, the country's national anthem is sung before instead of duringflag-rising and flag-lowering, followed by the National Banner Song during the actual flag-rising and flag-lowering. Even within a state, the state's citizenry may interpret the national anthem differently (such as in the United States some view theU.S. national anthem as representing respect for dead soldiers and policemen whereas others view it as honouring the country generally).[13]
Various solutions may be used when countries with different national anthems compete in a unified team. WhenNorth Korea andSouth Koreaparticipated together in the 2018 Winter Olympics, the folk song "Arirang", beloved on both sides of the border and seen as a symbol of Korea as a whole, was used as an anthem instead of the national anthem of either state.[14]
Other countries had their anthems composed by locally important people. This is the case for Colombia, whoseanthem's lyrics were written by former president and poetRafael Nuñez, who also wrote the country's first constitution, and in Malta, written byDun Karm Psaila, already aNational Poet. A similar case is Liberia, the nationalanthem of which was written by its third president,Daniel Bashiel Warner.
A national anthem, when it has lyrics (as is usually the case), is most often in thenational or most common language of the country, whetherde facto orofficial, though there are notable exceptions. Most commonly, states with more than onenational language may offer several versions of their anthem, for instance:
The "Swiss Psalm", the national anthem of Switzerland, has different lyrics for each of the country's fourofficial languages (French, German, Italian andRomansh).
The national anthem of Canada, "O Canada", has official lyrics in both English and French which are not translations of each other, and is frequently sung with a mixture of stanzas, representing the country'sbilingual nature. The song itself was originally written in French.
"The Soldier's Song", the national anthem of Ireland, was originally written and adopted in English, but an Irish translation, although never formally adopted, is nowadays almost always sung instead, even though only 10.5% of Ireland speaks Irish natively.[16]
The currentSouth African national anthem is unique in that five of the country's eleven official languages are used in the same anthem (the firststanza is divided between two languages, with each of the remaining three stanzas in a different language). It was created by combining two songs together and then modifying the lyrics and adding new ones.
The former country of Czechoslovakia combined the two national anthems of the two lands; the first stanza consisting of the first stanza of the Czech anthem "Kde domov můj", and the second stanza consisting of the first stanza of the Slovak anthem "Nad Tatrou sa blýska".
One of the two official national anthems of New Zealand, "God Defend New Zealand", is now commonly sung with the first verse inMāori ("Aotearoa") and the second in English ("God Defend New Zealand"). The tune is the same but the words are not a direct translation of each other.
"God Bless Fiji" has lyrics in English andFijian which are not translations of each other. Although official, the Fijian version is rarely sung, and it is usually the English version that is performed at international sporting events.
Although Singapore hasfour official languages, with English being the currentlingua franca, the national anthem, "Majulah Singapura" is inMalay and, by law, can only be sung with its original Malay lyrics, despite Malay being a minority language in Singapore. This is because Part XIII of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore declares, "the national language shall be the Malay language and shall be in the Roman script [...]"
There are several countries that do not have official lyrics to their national anthems. One of these is the "Marcha Real", the national anthem of Spain. Although it originally had lyrics, those lyrics were discontinued after governmental changes in the early 1980s afterFrancisco Franco's dictatorship ended. In 2007, a national competition to write words was held, but no lyrics were chosen.[17] Other national anthems with no words include "Inno Nazionale della Repubblica", the national anthem ofSan Marino, that ofBosnia and Herzegovina, that ofRussia from 1990 to 2000, and that ofKosovo, entitled "Europe".
An unofficial national anthem of Finland, "Maamme", was first written inSwedish and only later translated to Finnish. It is nowadays sung in both languages as there is aSwedish speaking minority of about 5% in the country. The national anthem of Estonia, "Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm" has a similar melody with "Maamme", but only with different lyrics and without repeating the second halves of strophes.Finlandia has been repeatedly suggested to be the official national anthem of Finland.[18]
The national anthem ofPakistan, the "Qaumi Taranah", is unique in that it is entirely inFarsi (Persian) with the exception of one word which is inUrdu, the national language.
^J. Leerssen: National Thought in Europe: A Cultural History, Amsterdam University Press, 2020, p. 103.
^M. de Bruin, "Het Wilhelmus tijdens de Republiek", in: L.P. Grijp (ed.),Nationale hymnen. Het Wilhelmus en zijn buren. Volkskundig bulletin 24 (1998), pp. 16–42, 199–200; esp. p. 28 n. 65.
NationalAnthems.me – national anthems of every country in the world (and historical national anthems) with streaming audio, lyrics, information and links
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