Favourite National Anthems

I have a lot of guilty passions, and among them is patriotic music. Somehow it gets me where I live.

What is/are your favourite national anthem/s?

(Post a link to a performance of it if you can find one).

I'll start.

One of my many faves is the National Anthem of Greece (Ode to Liberty):

Gives me chills every time. First heard it during the 1984 Olympics when a Greek athlete won a gold medal, and it's been a favourite ever since.

I really like South Africa's Anthem, though more the first part.

I really, really like Russia's anthem. This is my favorite recording:

Yep, that's a good'n. Nice recording, too! Those Russian choirs sing their hearts out, don't they?

While we're on the subject of Russia, here's one of several used by the Soviets. It was the rallying hymn during the great Revolution of 1917; indeed, I believe it's the definitive hymn of the greater Communist movement (originally in French):

The Internationale (Russian Version)

What a great tune! Whether you agree with the sentiments or not, you have to admit it's a stirring piece.

In honour of my "other half," who was born and raised in Lebanon (but who now eagerly awaits the day he is sworn in as an American citizen):

Yalla!

Poland. Eritrea. Liberia. Kenya. China.

Ooh...an eclectic selection, Mitchell!

I'll have to look most of those up, but...

Have Poland, will travel!

Poland's anthem is one of my BIG TIME favourites. I cannot hear it without weeping.

For those not familiar with it, it's known as The Dabrowski Mazurka. That's right: Poland's national anthem is also one of it's national dances - one of the few I know of that is such - and it's a grand one, with really stirring, historic lyrics about Poland's struggle for freedom and national identity. Composed in 1797, it is named for Jan Henryk Dabrowski (1755-1818), a Polish general who, after the Third Partition of Poland, organised a legion of Polish exiles in Italy to fight in the Napoleonic Wars.

Here's my favourite recording of it:

An English translation of the stirring lyrics:

Poland has not perished yet

So long as we still live!

What foreign force has taken from us

We shall take back with the sword.

REFRAIN:

March, march, Dąbrowski

From Italy to Poland!

Under thy command

Let us now rejoin the nation!

Cross the Vistula and Warta,

And Poles we shall be.

We've been shown by Bonaparte

Ways to victory.

(REFRAIN)

Like Czarniecki to Poznań

After Swedish occupation,

To rescue our homeland

We shall return by sea.

(REFRAIN)

Father, in tears,

Says to his Basia,

"Just listen! it seems that our people

Are beating the drums!"

(REFRAIN)

In light of Poland's centuries of suffering at the hands of mighty enemies on all sides, and particularly after the horrors she endured during World War II and the privation and stagnation of the Cold War, these words take on altogether greater and emotional significance. In proud defiance and against all odds, Poland has emerged from the ashes of its past and moves toward a brighter future, more prosperous than ever!

Well, I don't know many anthems, only the ones I listen in the worldcup (those who win and keep playing .... Germany, Italy, Brasil, Argentina, ... you know, always the same guys)

I have heard several times that the France one is the best anthem in the world, and Mexico's the 2nd place, but, I don't know these statements are based on what ? here they are:

I don't like the UK's anthem, but I LOVE Rule Britannia and I think it should be their anthem. I don't give a flying rat's donkey if it's imperialist (despite the fact that I like imperialism when I'm the core of the empire), people should grow a pair and have music played because it's cool and sounds nice, regardless of what it represents.

For example, if the Nazi anthem were nice (it sucks, though) I'd like it anyway, regardless of what it meant.

Apply the same reasoning I made for the UK to the US, replacing their dreadful and pussified anthem with Hail to the Chief.

So, adding La Marseillaise and the Russian Anthem (which I believe is the same as the USSR with different lyrics, no? If it is, THEY'RE THE ONLY SMART PEOPLE IN THE WORLD), here's my top 4:

1- Rule Britannia

2- La Marseillaise

3- USSR / Russian anthem

4- Hail to the Chief

I kind of like this performance of the Greek anthem; it has a rather archaic feel (there seems to be a problem with the lower voice, though)...

Just wondering if there is already a planetary anthem or are we still too busy playing divide and conquer?

I don't like the UK's anthem, but I LOVE Rule Britannia and I think it should be their anthem. I don't give a flying rat's donkey if it's imperialist (despite the fact that I like imperialism when I'm the core of the empire), people should grow a pair and have music played because it's cool and sounds nice, regardless of what it represents.

I think God Save the King/Queen is an ideal anthem - it has a generally stoic, conservative tone, dwells on historical institutions (the monarchy) rather than celebrating the present, and we omit all of the later verses for fear of offending foreign people. It is also slightly ironic and has an indecisive title. All of this fits the British mentality perfectly.

There was a online petition delivered to the Prime Minister a few years ago asking to change the national anthem to Spandau Ballet's 'Gold'. Several thousands backed it.

Pussies, that's what the world is made of.

I'm sure sooner or later something will break off around the Middle East big enough to shake off all the masks of hypocrisy in this big planetary theatre play of "globalization" and send everything spiraling down into the ultimate shitfest.

Uruguay, Bulgaria and Trinidad & Tobago all stand out to me.