O Canada (Note to Canadian lefties: if you sing the first two lines in French, then the next four lines in English, then finish in French, you skip all that patriarchal Christiancentric imagery and it’s multicultural!)
The Star-Spangled Banner (by the complete failure of anyone with a normal vocal range to be able to sing it)
God Save the Queen (which is also the “royal anthem” of Canada - when I sang it in French to Potter he cracked up)
La Marseillaise (sort of annoying that we can’t sing it at peace demos, when you think about it)
Marcha Real (national anthem of Spain - I might recognize it, I’ve heard it once or twice)
Els Segadors (anthem of Catalonia - bitching good lyrics. Bon colp de falç!)
Das Lied der Deutschen (whose bright idea was that? “oh, it won’t remind anybody of ‘Deutschland über alles’ if we only use the last verse!”)
The Russian national anthem (provided they kept the same tune)
I could probably get a few more by hearing them sung (“Mexicanos, al grito de guerra” and “Advance Australia Fair” don’t present any great difficulty in that regard), but these are the ones I know I would recognize.
Star Spangled Banner: Robert Downey Jr sang the best version I ever heard.
Scotland the Brave
Hail Brittania
Waltzing Matilda
La Marseillaise: Thank you, Casablanca
Men of Harlech: sang it as we froze to death in Terra Nova
God Save the Queen: Of course, I first learned it as “My country Tis of Thee.” At first I was amused that the English should steal one of our most beloved patriotic songs to praise their monarchy. Then I got educated.
Having worked at a Renaissance Faire, I can attest to how easily a few Guiness, some wench cleavage and a hot day can turn the most patriotic American into a sweaty Royalist screaming “God Save the Queen!” even if the Queen is just an underpaid goth actress in a very hot expensive costume.
God Save The Queen - to which I know the words of maybe one and a half verses. About par for the course. I think there are four or even five verses all told. It confuses the hell out of our football players when two verses are played before an international game.
La Marseillaise - to which I know most of the words.
The Star Spangled Banner - to which I probably could remember most of the words
Advance Australia Fair - dunno the words
Inno Di Mameli - Italian national anthem. Lovely tune (slightly silly, but don’t tell the Italians I said that), but I don’t know the words.
Land Of My Fathers - Welsh national anthem. Dunno the words.
And then there’s all the other patriotic songs and anthems that aren’t the official national anthem, such as Land Of Hope And Glory and Rule Britannia
[Minor hijack]
My sister, Misery’s Company and I have a tradition of grading National Anthem singers, particularly at hockey games. Although the rules are flexible, we give points for the following things (points are bad):
for each instance of same:
1 point for every gratuitous key change
1 point for breaking on the high notes
2 points for screwing up the words
1 point for random tempo changes
Style points:
1 point for excessive vibrato - it’s an anthem, not opera
1 point for massaging chest - If you must put your hand over your heart, don’t squeeze your breast (long story on this one).
You can also earn negative points if you are particularly talented or actually do a good job.
In my experience, most minor league hockey anthem singers rate between 4 and 8.
[/hijack]
Oh! Oh! Anthem sins? For me the biggest sin (short of singing “O Canada” to the tune of “O Tannenbaum,” which someone actually did once) is excessive sibilance on the word “glorious”.
The kids at my high school used to do this one all the time - “God keep our land glorioussssssSSSSSS and free” - because they knew it pissed the fuck out of the teachers.
One time they actually stopped the assembly and harangued the kids for doing it. Afterwards it decreased somewhat… but not entirely. :rolleyes:
O Canada. I could probably sort of sing along, too.
God Save the Queen.
La Marseillaise
HaTikva, the Israeli anthem. I could fake singing along pretty well, I think. Then I’d join in real loud on the last word, which is Yerushalyim (Jerusalem).
I know I’ve played the Mexican national anthem, in HS marching band, so while I can’t hum it, I’d probably recognize it.
I think it’d be a real toss up for most Americans whether they could recognize more state songs or national anthems. The cynic in me would say that the typical score would be 1 national and 0 state songs.
I’ve lived in 7 different states and spent considerable time in 20 others, and I can only name “O Fair New Mexico” and “Texas Our Texas”. I know both of those thanks to the mandatory state history classes back in 3rd and 4th grade.
Obviously I have lived in many of the same states as my brother NameAlreadyTaken and I don’t know EITHER of those state songs. I guess we know which one of us spent most of high school ditching. I thought that “The Yellow Rose of Texas” was the state song for Texas.
As for bad anthem singers, I also take serious points off for people who decide to embellish and make it fancy, and then can’t find their way back to the original song. :dubious:
Hey, I can hardly recognize my own half the time. I realize The Star Spangled Banner isn’t the easiest song to sing, but it’s not that bad, and we can all do without the extras people like to throw in.
That said, the anthem at the last minor league hockey game I went to was hillarious. The lady singing it forgot the words halfway through and the stadium went silent (except for the music accompaniement). Then she tried to start over again, even though the song was almost over, got lost again. Then the boos started. She turned bright red, turned around and almost fell on the ice. She only managed to stay up by grabbing onto the boards (she had only taken a step or so onto the ice from the zamboni entrance). Of ocurse, laughter erupted at that point. Even the players on the ice couldn’t help but join in.
After watching something like 30 minor league games in the Southwestern US, I have to say that the best National Anthem rendition I heard was by a 4 year old. He just went out and sang… no flourishes, no ruffles, no forgotten words and he had no problems with the high notes.
God Save the Queen - Know the first verse.
O Canada - Don’t know the words.
The Star Spangled Banner - Know most of it.
La Marseillaise - Ain’t got a clue what the words are.
Gelem, gelem - Know the first verse.
Finnish
Swedish
Danish
British
Russian
German
French
American
Canadian
Australian
Possibly Azerbaijani (I remember that it has a kickass tune, at least)
because I don’t want you to be kept in suspense, the aforementioned national anthem of Catalonia is along the lines of, “Sure we’re farmers, but that means we’ve got sickles and we know how to use them.” I’m serious. Fabulous lyrics. Check it out: Els Segadors
Slight correction here: Finlandia, composed by Jean Sibelius, is not actually the national anthem of Finland (that would be Maamme, “Our Land”, composed by Fredric Pacius and first performed in public in 1848).
However, the tune for Finlandiais used as the Biafran national anthem, so you might recognize it from there…
Neither is “Waltzing Matilda” the national anthem of Australia. I was expecting one of the resident Aussies to correct that, but I guess they’re all asleep.
For me, I can recognize ours (US), Canada’s, England’s, Scotland’s (if that really counts), and that’s about it. On the other hand, as someone suggested, I can’t name ANY state songs. I might KNOW them, if the states adopted popular songs. But, I couldn’t even tell you what Massachusetts’ state song is. (I know we have one, though, because we have an “Official State” everything. Even an Official State Donut; Boston Creme, of course.)
US (Star-Spangled Banner)
UK (God Save the Queen)
France (La Marseillaise)
People’s Republic of China (Qi Lai)
Hmm I recognise all the national anthems of the UN Security Council…
Russia (the ex-Soviet one)
USSR (forgot its name, starts with “Soyuz…”)
Japan (Kimigayo)
Republic of China (3 principles…whatever)
Australia
Germany
Malaysia
Singapore
