National anthem

A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation.^[2] The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European nations tend towards more ornate and operatic pieces, while those in the Middle East, Oceania, Africa, and the Caribbean use a more simplistic fanfare.^[3] Some countries that are devolved into multiple constituent states have their own official musical compositions for them (such as with the United Kingdom, Russia, and the Soviet Union); their constituencies' songs are sometimes referred to as national anthems even though they are not sovereign states.

For other uses, see National Anthem (disambiguation).

The "", the national anthem of Switzerland, has different lyrics for each of the country's four official languages (French, German, Italian and Romansh).

Swiss Psalm

The national anthem of 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's bilingual nature. The song itself was originally written in French.

O Canada

"", 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.^[14]

The Soldier's Song

The current is unique in that five of the country's eleven official languages are used in the same anthem (the first stanza 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.

South African national anthem

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 "", and the second stanza consisting of the first stanza of the Slovak anthem "Nad Tatrou sa blýska".

Kde domov můj

One of the two official national anthems of New Zealand, "", is now commonly sung with the first verse in Māori ("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 Defend New Zealand

"" has lyrics in English and Fijian 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.

God Bless Fiji

Although Singapore has , with English being the current lingua franca, the national anthem, "Majulah Singapura" is in Malay 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 […]"

four official languages

There are several countries that do not have official lyrics to their national anthems. One of these is the "", the national anthem of Spain. Although it originally had lyrics, those lyrics were discontinued after governmental changes in the early 1980s after Francisco Franco's dictatorship ended. In 2007, a national competition to write words was held, but no lyrics were chosen.^[15] Other national anthems with no words include "Inno Nazionale della Repubblica", the national anthem of San Marino, that of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that of Russia from 1990 to 2000, and that of Kosovo, entitled "Europe".

Marcha Real

The national anthem of , "Jana Gana Mana": the official lyrics are in Bengali; they were adapted from a poem written by Rabindranath Tagore.

India

Despite the most common language in being English, the Welsh national anthem "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" is sung in the Welsh language.

Wales

An unofficial national anthem of Finland, "", was first written in Swedish and only later translated to Finnish. It is nowadays sung in both languages as there is a Swedish 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.^[16]

Maamme

The national anthem of , the "Qaumi Taranah", is unique in that it is entirely in Farsi (Persian) with the exception of one word which is in Urdu, the national language.

Pakistan

A national anthem, when it has lyrics (as is usually the case), is most often in the national or most common language of the country, whether de facto or official, there are notable exceptions. Most commonly, states with more than one national language may offer several versions of their anthem, for instance:

for a monarch or representative of a monarch, often in addition to a national anthem or being a national anthem itself

Personal anthem

(unofficial), any song or music with the planet Earth in an exalted role

Earth anthem

List of national anthems

Martial music

List of former national anthems

List of regional anthems

– national anthems of every country in the world (and historical national anthems) with streaming audio, lyrics, information and links