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My 10 favourite National Anthems-Happy listening!

  • Writer: Varun
    Varun
  • May 7, 2020
  • 5 min read

Updated: Jun 5, 2020

When I wrote my post on my ‘weird’ interests last week, a couple of people reached out to let me know they found my interest in national anthems interesting and even wanted to hear me sing them! While the days of drinking large quantities of alcohol leading to the singing of national anthems are long behind me, I was pleasantly surprised that that piqued interest. So I thought of listing down my 10 favourite National Anthems. In no particular order, here we go:


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1.) India (Of course!): I honestly haven’t included this just because I’m Indian, I genuinely do think this is one of the most beautiful national anthems out there. ‘Jana Gana Mana’ was originally written in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore in 1911 and was adopted as India’s national anthem upon independence from the British in 1947.

Even though I wouldn’t personally call myself a patriot or nationalist as I think belonging to a particular country is nothing to be either proud or ashamed of, I have to admit that hearing this anthem gives me goosebumps even today, and will continue to do so.

Fun fact: Rabindranath Tagore also wrote ‘Amar Shonar Bangla’ which was later adopted as the national anthem of Bangladesh upon its creation in the early 1970s




2.) South Africa: Undoubtedly one of my favourite anthems, and one of the first ones I learnt. It deserves a blog post of its own, but I’ll keep it short. 5 languages, and essentially 2 different songs pieced together, it comprises extracts of the 19th-century hymn, ‘Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika’ (God Bless Africa) which was the unofficial anthem of the country’s freedom struggle with extracts of Die Stem van Suid-Afrika (The Call of South Africa), formerly used as the national anthem of South Africa just before and during the entirety of Apartheid. In 1997, an additional few lines in English were added to the merger and a new anthem was born. The 5 languages that I spoke about earlier are Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans and English.




3.) Brazil: South American national anthems are always upbeat and fun, and Brazil’s national anthem, ‘Hino Nacional Brasileiro’ is the best example of this. Composed in 1831 by Francisco Manuel Da Silva, it was given two sets of unofficial lyrics before being given official lyrics by a decree in 1922 by President Epitacio Pessoa.

The song consists of two consecutive stanzas, which means it needs to be played twice to accommodate this. However, if just the instrumental is to be played, it’s allowed for it to be played just once, which often happens in sporting events.


Bonus Version from the 2014 World Cup: Note how the music cuts off after the first stanza, but the crowd and players continue on to the second stanza: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV_ZwQ19MoY


4.) Italy: The first European entrant on this list, and it’s a country we’ve read so much sad news about recently. ‘Il Canto Degli Italiani’, best known among Italians as Inno di Mameli (Mameli’s Hymn) or Frateli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) is a rousing piece of work and again, a lot of fun to sing along to. After Italy became a republic after the Second World War, the song was chosen as the national anthem on October 12, 1946.


Bonus Version: The Italian rugby team belting it out at the 2011 World Cup:



5.) Japan: Moving on to the oldest national anthem in the world, ‘Kimigayo’ (His Imperial Majesty’s Reign), and one of the most beautifully arranged ones in my opinion. It’s also one of the world’s shortest national anthems. Owing to its dated origins, there has been a bit of resentment over the years, especially among students, who are forced to sing the song but cannot relate to the lyrics.




6.) Canada: This one is in here to make sure I get those citizenship papers 😊 In all seriousness though, ‘O Canada’ is a fine tune and in more than one language which I always appreciate. The original lyrics were written in French in 1880 by Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier, following which multiple English versions were produced, with the final one by Robert Stanley Weir in 1908 gaining the most popularity. While it served as the anthem since 1939, it was only officially adopted on July 1 (Canada Day), 1980.


With Lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq_VJfhjK-8 (I’ve included the bilingual version, though it’s normally sung completely in either English or French)



7.) Fiji: All the way down to the South Pacific for the next one to the island nation of Fiji. ‘Meda Dau Doka’, or ‘God Bless Fiji’ was written and composed by Michael Francis Alexander Prescott and was adopted as the national anthem upon independence in 1970.

It has English, Fijian as well as Fiji-Hindi lyrics, though it is most commonly sung in English. I came across this one through my interest in Rugby, and though it’s not a popular one, something about it draws me to it every time.


8.) Wales: Back to Europe for No.8 with the lovely ‘Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau’ (Land of my Fathers). The Welsh are a proud people, and it’s evident when you hear them sing their anthem. The words were written by Evan James in 1856, and composed by his son, conveniently named James James. While it has not been adopted as an official national anthem, it is pretty much widely recognized as the anthem of Wales and is played either alone or along with God Save The Queen (The anthem of the UK) during royal events.


Welsh rugby crowd belting it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBpQqQ87JOg



9.) Singapore: Singapore’s one of my favourite countries on Earth, and so it makes sense that I like their anthem, right? ‘Majulah Singapura’ (Onward Singapore) was composed by Zubir Said in 1958, and formally adopted as Singapore’s national anthem upon independence in 1965. It is sung in Malay by law, however, there are translations available in Singapore’s three other official languages: English, Tamil and Mandarin. Originally composed in the key of G major, it was officially redone in the key of F major in 2001 to allow for a ‘grander and more inspiring arrangement’.




10.) Uruguay: And last, but definitely not the least, we’re back to South America for the Uruguayan National Anthem, ‘Himno Nacional de Uruguay’. It was written by Francisco Acuna de Figueroa, who coincidentally also wrote Paraguay’s national anthem. The lyrics were officially adopted as the anthem in 1833, and the music was put to it in 1848. I first heard this during Uruguay’s run to the 2010 Football World Cup semifinals, and remember recording full replays of the matches on my TV just so I could rewatch the anthem part.


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