National Anthems

[Hazell B]

Picture the scene ... I'm loading stuff in to my vehicle in a public car park with the radio on. A man in his early twenties is doing the same beside me.

He said "Have we won another medal?"
I said "Eh? Dunno, it's not sport radio"
He said "But they're playing the national anthem!"
I said "No, it's Land of Hope and Glory on Classic FM" :rolleyes:
He said "You don't even know your own national anthem? You should be ashamed of yourself!" and slammed his boot down before stomping off moaning about unpatriotic types like me.

Now I may not know who wrote our anthem, or even when it was written, but I do know what it sounds like. I know the German and Italian ones too, thanks to Michael Schumacher :p :

Do you know yours?

[anthonyvop]

Do you know yours?

Of course.

[pino]

I do know the italian one, I love it...and I sing it everytime I hear it :D

[jso1985]

hell yeah

[Donney]

I know it and I know the lyrics by heart :D

[Tshbez]

I think history pre-1990 should be wiped from everyone's memories...including all national anthems. It's time we all moved on.

[Garry Walker]

Of course. I also obviously know the lyrics by heart.

[Drew]

I know what the anthems are, but I don't know the words and quite frankly I couldn't care less what the words are either.

[BDunnell]

I think Land of Hope and Glory would make a far better English national anthem than the dirge we have at present, but to be honest I'm with Drew in terms of not really caring.

[Valve Bounce]

Interesting that the Welsh and Scots who won Gold Medals had to put up with God Save The Queen. The Poms claimed them as their's. :D

[veeten]

I like the Finnish anthem. It's nice. :)

[Drew]

Interesting that the Welsh and Scots who won Gold Medals had to put up with God Save The Queen. The Poms claimed them as their's. :D

Still doing better than Australia, so neh neh neh neh neh

;)

[ShiftingGears]

Yes I know Advance Australia Fair, however the tune of Italy's national anthem is much better :p :

[Valve Bounce]

Still doing better than Australia, so neh neh neh neh neh

;)

Not so!! thought someone would be dumb enough to give me the chance to post this link: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,,24221767-5014104,00.html

It seems that when you subtract the medals of the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish, the Poms are behind the Aussis. :p :
England has only won nine Golds, the Aussis have won more. neh neh neh neh neh neh!!

[Mark]

I know the full tune of the Italian anthem. Thanks to MS!

Land of Hope and Glory is used as the anthem of England in the commonwealth games.

[MrJan]

Being a football fan I know that it goes la la la la la at one point. Lyrics seem ridiculous too.

I've forgotten who it was but years ago a comedian (Billy Connolly??) said that the national anthem should be the theme tune from The Archers :D

As with most F1 viewers I also know the Italian and German anthems and given a cue I could hum along to the FInnish and Spanish ones too

[BDunnell]

I like the Finnish anthem. It's nice. :)

I believe it's the same as the Estonian one. If I'm wrong, I'm sure one of our Estonian forum members will correct me!

[SEATFreak]

It may be interesting to know something I have just myself found out about The Star Spangled Banner.

Whilst the "Star Spangled Banner" lyrics was penned by an American (Frabcis Scott Key), the tune was inspired by a British drinking song "The Anacrenotic Song" or "To Anacreon in Heaven" by John Stafford Smith for the Anacrenotic Society.A society Anacrenotic apparently derives from a Greek poet called Anacreon.

[pino]

I know the full tune of the Italian anthem...

About time to start singing the lirics (http://www.gazzetta.it/Speciali/Europei/2008/Primo_Piano/2008/06_Giugno/09/popup_inno.shtml) then :s mokin: :p :

[cosmicpanda]

I know the New Zealand anthem, and have often had to play it for formal occasions.

Personally I love God Save the Queen, which is lucky, as it is New Zealand's other anthem. It's not a dirge at all (unless you sing it like one), and given the right instrumentation and performance it can be just as majestic as any song you'd care to mention.

It's served as inspriation to many composers. I seem to recall reading that Hadyn, if I'm not wrong, admired it. Beethoven wrote some variations on it, I think Tchaikovsky used it in some way, but my favourite are by the American composer Charles Ives, who of course called it "America" rather than "God Save the Queen."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNpJJLNI6xg

That video is Virgil Fox playing these variations. Unfortunately the editing leaves something to be desired, but it's very interesting to listen to. If nothing else, watch the pedal solo starting from about 6:15 onwards, truly awesome technical skill.

[Hazell B]

.... the Poms are behind the Aussis.

Good point, although if you just count the Northerners who've won for Team GB we're the highest scoring nation per head in the world ;) The south would be stuffed without northern England :D

There should be a Northern only anthem ... and you'd all know it :p :

[Rani]

Weirdly our national anthem- Hatikva (it means "The Hope") is sampled in Tupac's Troublesome. Don't ask me how or why as I haven't a clue.

[Storm]

Do you know yours?

Of course!!

We don't get to hear it often on TV at sporting events though.
We also have a national song (which should have been the anthem really, which most folks know too)

I also know the tunes of Italian, Spanish, German & Brazilian anthems.

[harsha]

Vande Mataram should have been the anthem i'd agree with that...

and singing the anthem every day during my schooling years,it will be in my system

[gadjo_dilo]

I don't know all the lyrics, it's too long and they usually sing only the first part. When I was in school and learned a lot of poems this song was forbidden and I hadn't the lyrics. These days I'm too old and senile for learning poetry.

Anyway, I have a weird attraction for France's La Marseillaise.

[Rudy Tamasz]

We have a really nice anthem musically. The lyrics doesn't make much sense though (blah, blah, blah, peaceful people, bravery, friendship etc.). In addition the lyrics has been twisted recently to get rid of the communist stuff and make it more neutral so I no longer know it by heart.

[schmenke]

The vast majority of Canadians know only the unofficial unilingual version of our anthem :mark:

[Hazell B]

The vast majority of Canadians only rant....

:p :
I like a good edit :laugh:
Sorry Schmenke

[schmenke]

True though... :p :

[ioan]

Do you know yours?

Yep!

[Breeze]

Doesn't the UK National Anthem go like this (http://www.televisiontunes.com/Benny_Hill_Show.html)?

[Breeze]

Yea, yea, I know, the US Anthem goes like this (http://www.televisiontunes.com/Green_Acres.html)............... :dozey:

[Drew]

There's a programme called green acres, that's news to me! :)

[Dave B]

Green Acres? Isn't that the feed line for a Two Ronnies joke?

[leopard]

During domination of Schumi in F1, I got familiar with the tone of Germany's anthem. But now I forgot it again.

[fandango]

I know it and I know the lyrics by heart :D


Ha-ha Donney I got the joke (the Spanish national anthem doesn't have any words, mostly because there's nothing everyone agrees on except when it comes to food)

[Drew]

Ha-ha Donney I got the joke (the Spanish national anthem doesn't have any words, mostly because there's nothing everyone agrees on except when it comes to food)

I thought that it didn't use to have lyrics, but that they recently agreed to lyrics?

[veeten]

... which it makes it perfect to be played while eating.

(because it's hard to sing with your mouth full) ;) :p :

[Storm]

Ha-ha Donney I got the joke (the Spanish national anthem doesn't have any words, mostly because there's nothing everyone agrees on except when it comes to food)

Lo Lo Lo Lo.....Lo Lo LoLoLoLo..... :p :

[fandango]

I thought that it didn't use to have lyrics, but that they recently agreed to lyrics?


A project was set up to decide on lyrics, but it concluded without success. Spain has four official languages (Spanish, Basque, Catalan and Galician), but you are only allowed to address the Spanish parliament in Spanish, which not everyone agrees with.

Food is the only thing that unites the "Spanish", so they should make the lyrics a list of all their favourite dishes. So, to the tune of the Spanish national anthem (okay, it's been a while since Alonso won, so you might not remember):

Paella,
Chocos,
Calamares a la Romana,
Pescadito frito,
Y una buena botellita...

[Donney]

Lo Lo Lo Lo.....Lo Lo LoLoLoLo..... :p :

That's how it goes :p

Yeah food would be a good topic, much better than war or fighting enemies :D

I love the fact that it has no lyrics :up:

[Drew]

Food is the only thing that unites the "Spanish", so they should make the lyrics a list of all their favourite dishes. So, to the tune of the Spanish national anthem (okay, it's been a while since Alonso won, so you might not remember):

Paella,
Chocos,
Calamares a la Romana,
Pescadito frito,
Y una buena botellita...

Where's the pulpa a la gallega, os galegos won't be happy :p :

Why not?

"Camarero! que? Camarero! que? Una de champiñones! Una de champiñones?? champiñoooones champiñooooones olé olé olé!

[Donney]

:rotflmao:

[fandango]

Where's the pulpa a la gallega, os galegos won't be happy :p :

Why not?

"Camarero! que? Camarero! que? Una de champiñones! Una de champiñones?? champiñoooones champiñooooones olé olé olé!

2nd verse. And the big climax comes with Tortilla de Patata!