Republic or death

This site’s moved, so please head here for all your up-to-date national anthem needs. I really should have written this post a long time ago!

You can, of course, still enjoy the archive here, but it is all on the new site too.

You would hope the country that's given the world Usain Bolt, Elaine Thompson, Asafa Powell, Omar McLeod and countless other sprinting superstars would have an anthem to match their speed, charisma and excitement.

Instead, it has Jamaica, Land We Love!

On one level, it's unsurprising. The anthem was written in 1962 by four people including a local vicar just as the country gained independence from Britain. It was always likely to sound like a God Save the Queen rip off.

So... is it time Jamaica dumps it? Maybe get rid of the brass and replace it with some reggae or ragga? I've long thought so. I even call for the country's politicians to do just that in my book on anthems.

But today I heard controversial dancehall star (he's in prison for murder) Vybz Kartel's cover of the anthem and I think it's changed my mind.

If you look at the Olympic medal table right now, one thing stands out. No, not the bizarre state of affairs that is Great Britain being second, but this:

Yep, an independent has won gold for the first time.

When I saw this, I assumed it was one of #teamrefugee (the hashtag's obligatory), but it turns out it was actually the man below: Fehaid Aldeehani, a Kuwaiti, who won the men's double trap shooting contest.

The reason he had to compete as an independent is Kuwait's banned form the Olympics because its government interferes in sport. Naughty them!

What did this mean for Fehaid? Well, one, had to watch the Olympic flag get raised rather than his own, and, two, that he had to listen to the godawful Olympic anthem get played (I've written about that before here if you want to hear it).

Was he happy about that? Well, I'd guess 'no' since he's a member of Kuwait's army and massively patriotic. He refused to hold the Olympic flag at the opening ceremony. But, well, he looks pretty pleased in the photo, doesn't he? So who knows!

In case he wasn't, though, here for Fehaid and for you, is Kuwait's anthem:

Quite fun, no?

I actually give Kuwait a mention in my book on anthems in a chapter on Bosnia:

The idea of doing without words [in anthems] has been most popular in the Middle East - a surprise, perhaps, given poetry is considered the greatest of art forms in many of its countries. Kuwait's anthem, for instance, was initially just a 15-second brass flourish and so boring at that it could have done with being half the length. Iraq, Qatar, the UAE and North and South Yemen (the two countries that preceded the current one) also didn't feel the need to have words to their original anthems, although from the 1950s onwards they all seemed to cave in, one after the other, like embarrassed teenagers desperately trying not to look out of place at the school disco. Kuwait's is now a word-packed two minutes (at one point it praises the country's emir for 'Fencing us all fairly'). It could still do with being cut in half.

Each time Italy's won a medal at this Olympics, every radio station in the country has apparently cut what they were playing - some Justin Bieber probably - and banged on the country's national anthem.

Which is both the most insane and patriotic thing I've heard happening during these Games. Italy has so far won 23 medals, including Elia Viviani’s in the omnium above. That's a lot of interruptions.

Is the Song of the Italians (Il Canto degli Italiani) worth cutting a Bieber track for? If the track in question's What Do You Mean? the answer's a clear no. But if it's any of his other hits, the answer's a clear yes.

Il Canto degli Italiani has got one of the most brilliantly rambunctious tunes of all anthems - one that struts through its melody as if demanding you gawp at it. And as for its lyrics, it's got a chorus that gets right to the point of what all anthems are meant to be about: "We are ready to die / We are ready to die / Italy has called."

Vietnam's The Marching Song, has everything you could want in a national anthem.

You want blood? It's got that in abundance, being filled with lines like, "Our glorious path [to victory] is built on the corpses of our foes."

You want war cries? It has those too, of course! "Hasten to the battlefield. Forward! Everyone!" goes the chorus.

And you want a quirky tune that's completely inappropriate to accompany such violence? Well, it definitely has that.

Which is why it's so brilliant that Vietnam won its first-ever Olympic gold last week as it meant this wonderful tune was played in Rio. Yes, I should have written about it then, but I only learned about the medal an hour ago.

So congratulations to Hoang Xuan Vinh for winning the 50m air pistol. His prowess with a weapon perhaps shouldn't be a surprise given his country's anthem, although here's hoping he didn't take the line about building the path to victory on his foes' bodies literally.

Here's a picture of him shooting:

Don't mess!

And here, for no other reason than it puts a smile on my face, is a photo of him being mobbed yesterday in Hanoi airport.

Bahrain won its first ever gold this week when 19-year-old Ruth Jebet won the steeplechase. Which, of course, means an Olympic crowd got to hear Bahrain's anthem for the first time too. Hurrah!

That tune is perhaps the best example of the Arab fanfare style of anthem you could wish to stumble across. It's jolly. It's quick. And it's so short it's over before it begun. Although that length does mean the only thing people are actually likely to remember about it is its name - the Bahrainona! - and that's largely because it sounds like a wrestler's.

But should it have actually been played? Jebet was born in Kenya, and has been a Bahrain national for just three years. The emirate, presumably, offered her a shedload of cash to change nationality.

On one level, it's hard to argue with her choice. Jebet's said the reason she made the move is this: "There are so many athletes in Kenya. In Bahrain I get the chance to go to school." But, well, it leaves me uneasy. And if it does you too, I suggest you join me in listening to Kenya's anthem right this minute as the poorest form of protest imaginable!

Kenya's anthem's called O God of All Creation - Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu in Swahili - and it's that rarest of national anthems: one that actually sounds like the place it comes from rather than a British hymn.

This Olympics is proving amazing for countries winning their first golds. First, there was Kosovo, then there was Puerto Rico and somewhere along the line there was also Singapore, after Joseph Schooling won the 100m men's butterfly, stunning Michael Phelps in the process.

There is a beautiful story about Schooling's idolisation of Phelps over at The Guardian, but let's get to more important matters: what does Singapore's anthem sound like, the song Schooling got to so proudly hear soon after his victory? Er, it's not the best.

It was written by composer Zubir Said in 1958 when he was working for a film studio, which probably explains why it sounds like a 1950s' Asian showtune.

If those are your thing, you'll love it. Unfortunately for me, it does nothing, which is why I should let this post finish instead with the words of May Chen, a journalist for The Straits Times, who was at the race and whose article about it wonderfully quotes Said's song:

For one-and-a-half minutes as the national anthem blared through the speakers, I was not a journalist trying to stay neutral in the press tribune.

I was simply a Singaporean, proud that one of our own has demonstrated - on the biggest stage - the country's progress.

You stand taller, sing louder, but you cannot stop the tears.

The New York Times carried an article this weekend complaining that the Star-Spangled Banner being played at Rio 2016 sounds sad.

The article's four years late, since it's actually the anthem from London 2012, but if you want to read a more thoughtful, musicological comment about why the argument's bunkum, head to New Yorker classical music critic Alex Ross's site.

The Times' article also revealed a journalist is writing yet another history of the US anthem. Don't wait for it; buy my book instead. It does the whole history in one chapter and with the occasional funny travelogue, which is clearly all you actually need!

In related news, American Twitter users have being going insane whenever one of their athletes has failed to put their hand on their heart during the anthem - gymnast Gabby Douglas even had to apologise for not doing so.

Years ago, I wrote on here about Puerto Rico's national anthem - La Borinqueña - for one simple reason: it's the world's only sexy anthem. It was originally written as a dancehall song called Gorgeous Brunette, but, somehow, even as an anthem it still carries a little heat in the trumpets.

Which is why it's such amazing news that Monica Puig (above) won the women's tennis at the Olympics. Because it means I can feature it again!

Puerto Ricans have won gold before, but under the banner of the USA, so this was the first time the anthem was ever played at a Games. Monica actually lives in the US, but she apparently made sure to learn la Borinqueña's every word before the final. In the end, she cried too much to sing.

(I hope you all watched it, by the way. The final game alone, when she kept on getting to match point, but losing, was exhilarating).

As a bonus, here's the wonderfully sensual original song the anthem's based on:

And here's a fantastic article on Puerto Rico's ongoing financial problems. It is effectively broke. Monica's medal is the only light the country has had for a while.

What anthem does Taiwan play at the Games? Not its actual one, unsurprisingly, because China won't allow it. Just as China won't allow Taiwan to be called Taiwan either (it competes as Chinese Taipei).

It's a huge shame as the anthem's great, with a grace and ever-changing rhythm you rarely find in these songs. It's also the only anthem based on a political speech, meaning it's filled with bizarre references to Taiwan founder Sun Yat-sen's political philosophy ("Three principles...Follow the principles!").

So what does Chinese Taipei play? This, its National Flag Song.

Is it any better? No! I mean, didn't you just listen to it? It's a dull march. Although clearly no one really minds. 

There could only ever be one choice for today's anthem after Fiji's brilliant victory in the men's rugby sevens - its first ever Olympic medal, let alone it's first gold. Just look at those celebrations in Viti, the country’s capital, above!

Which is a shame as Fiji's anthem, God Bless Fiji, is awful, the sort of instantly forgettably hymn you find in so many former British colonies.

Fortunately, the music's actually from a 1911 American gospel song called Dwelling in Beulah Land, which means you can find many great clips of American televangelists pretending to sing it online.

Yes, it is better with some boogie woogie piano and a harmonica solo.

If you look at the Olympic medal table right now (this was written on 11 August!), Hungary's the best performing European country by a mile. It's got five golds, as many as Britain and France combined. 

Hungarians turn out to be quite good at sport. Who knew? Especially swimming and fencing. That's Emese Szász, above, winning the women's épée.

"But", I hear you ask, "is its anthem any good? That's what I come to this blog for?"

Well, it's certainly not as good as France's la Marseillaise, but despite being a hymn - its very name is Himnusz - it does have a melody that's more moving, more dignified, than the likes of God Save the Queen.

Ferenc Kölcsey, a poet, wrote the words in 1812 when Hungary was part of the Habsburg empire. It was a blatant call to Hungarian nationalism - its first line is, "God, bless the nation of Hungary" - but to hide that from censors he pretended it was historical by giving it the sub-title, "From the stormy centuries of the Hungarian people".

The censors must have been pretty inept as it clearly wasn't - at one point it calls on God to "bring upon Hungarians a time of relief" - but maybe they just didn't think it would catch on.

Yes, it's an obvious choice.

And yes, there's nothing worse than stoking American patriotism.

But the clips of Ryan Held crying as the Star-Spangled Banner plays after he's just won gold in the 4 x 100m freestyle are too good. If anything shows the positive power that anthems can have, it's the photo above.

"I didn't think I was going to cry," he told reporters afterwards. "I was too tired. I didn’t think I could.

"I've heard the national anthem hundreds of times, but as soon as that played it was just something different.”

If you want to know the story of that anthem - the bizarre, 100-plus year journey it took to becoming America's anthem - read my book. There's a whole chapter on it.

Last week, Kosovo - at its first ever Olympics - won its first ever gold when the amazing judoaka, Majlinda Kelmendi, beat a young Italian, Odette Giuffrida, by a single point.

Majlinda's victory also meant that, about ten minutes later, the world got to hear Kosovo's national anthem for the first time: a soaring instrumental bizarrely called Europe, by the composer Mendi Mengjiqi.

My book about national anthems - buy it now! - starts with a chapter all about that song, in which I largely go drunk-driving around the beautiful Kosovan countryside with Mendi. At one point, a friend of his told me Mendi was "the most important man in Kosovo", to which I drunkenly replied, "But no one likes his song."

I was being honest. No one I had met, including Majlinda, liked it. They hated its name ("Our country's Kosovo. Why's our anthem called Europe?"). They hated the fact it had no words. They hated the fact it wasn't Albania's (most Kosovans are ethnically Albanian).

But Mendi's friend was unfazed. "They will," he said.

I hope Majlinda's victory is the moment he's proved right.

I've just had an article in the New York Times about going "sound hunting" with some of the world's leading field recordists: the London Sound Survey (that’s him above), Kate Carr and Chris Watson (you'll have heard his work since he does the sound for David Attenborough's nature documentaries).

Read it here, and scroll down to hear the sounds of the "carnage" of bats eating at night and a waterboatman smashing its penis against its stomach!

There were a few other people I'd have loved to get in, but didn't have the space: Des Coulam, who does the amazing Soundlandscapes blog in Paris where you can find the noises of everything from hospitals to riots; Vladimir Kryuchev who runs the Oontz site from smalltown Russia; and Cheryl Tipp, who's one of the British Library's sound curators (and sometimes writes for its Sound and Vision blog).

There are, brilliantly, ten refugees competing at the Olympics: five South Sudanese, two Syrians, two judokas from the Democratic Republic of Congo (that’s Popole Misenga above) and an Ethiopian marathon runner.

What anthem will they hear in the miraculous event they win gold? Not their own. And that’s a huge shame as it’d be great if the Syrians, especially, could stand on the podium and sing theirs as if saying, “I represent this country – not the war.”

Instead, any who do win will get the Olympic anthem, which is an even bigger shame as it’s appalling – an overblown hymn that relies on being high-pitched to stir emotion.

I should give it some slack, though.

It was written in 1896 and its lyrics, at least, are suitable for the Olympics, calling at one point for God to

“shine in the momentum of noble contests…running, wrestling, throwing.”

It’s a shame those words are in Greek, mind. I’m not sure how many Congolese refugees are au fait with the language.

If you’d like to know more about the refugees’ own anthems, here’s a blog about the bizarre fact all sides of the Syrian conflict sing the same tune; here’s an interview with Mido Samuel, the inspiring composer of South Sudan’s, once a refugee himself; and here’s a blog about Ethiopia’s appalling anthem.

I’ve surprisingly not written about the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s beautiful anthem, Debout Congolaise (Arise, Congolese), before, but here it is for you. It’s the only national anthem with a call-and-response section, so listen out for that towards the end.

At last night's Opening Ceremony, a samba musician called Paulinho da Viola sung the most beautiful version of Brazil's national anthem - making it seem as delicate as patriotism itself.

You should hear it as soon as you can. Here's the BBC's stream of the event. The anthem starts at 28:30.

But as wonderful as that was, you should be praying Brazil's anthem gets played at the Games many more times, for two reasons:

1) Its introduction, which spirals ever upwards, getting faster and faster, as if trying to force you to your feet. It's one of the great, rambunctious, operatic anthems of South America. It was written by Francisco Manuel da Silva, a man so obsessed with Italian opera (he set up an academy for it in Rio) it's no surprise he mimicked its style.