Pretty much every country in the world has a national anthem, but often times there are
some songs that might be more popular or more recognizable that for whatever reason aren’t
the national anthem of the country they’re so synonymous with.
It’s kind of like the capitals video I made a few months ago!
USA There are numerous examples of this.
Starting in the country that created McDonald’s, the moon landings, student debt, and myself,
the United States uses the Star-Spangled Banner, and has done so since 1931.
However, as any good freedom-lover knows, the US has been a thing since 1776, so what
did it use beforehand?
When the US was in its infancy, it adopted the still famous Yankee Doodle as a patriotic
song.
The song actually traces its origins to various countries across western Europe, including
Britain, who used the song themselves to mock the American Revolution, but was eventually
adopted by the Revolutionaries themselves.
The song that was probably most commonly used as the anthem before 1931 was Hail Columbia,
back when people still sometimes referred to America as Columbia (not to be confused
with Colombia, or the District of Columbia, as taken into account by the people of the
state of Columbia, or…
Washington).
Today, Hail Columbia is still sometimes used, but merely as the Vice Presidential anthem,
basically a song used to honor the Vice President.
Speaking of Presidential anthems, Hail to the Chief is the proper Presidential anthem
of the United States, and for this reason is probably more well known.
Basically, it’s a song used in public events to announce the President’s appearance,
and also their departure… from life, as it’s also used in state funerals for former
presidents.
Mr. Betts: Wait, what about My Country, Tis of Thee?
It’s also a famous American song that didn’t make anthem status.
Wait, Mr. Betts?
What are you doing here?
Mr. Betts: You left the keys to your channel over here.
Wait, since when does my channel have keys?
Mr. Betts: That’s not important.
What all of you watching this video ought to know however, is that this video is actually
part of a collaboration between our channels.
Over on my channel, Mr. Betts’ Class, I made a video on how the Star Spangled Banner
itself is actually a parody song.
You know how much I love parody songs!
Yes, we all know that pretty well by now.
I’ve linked Mr. Betts’ video in the description, and in the on-screen cards, so be sure to
check it out after this video’s over!
UK Okay, so that’s all well and good, but this
is a world-themed channel, so let’s find a country that is not the US [the UK], okay,
I guess that works.
The United Kingdom of this island (Great Britain), part of this island (Ireland), and all of
these islands (you expect me to name them all?) uses the famous and probably overused
God Save the Queen (well, at least historically overused), but another famously British song
is Rule Britannia.
Rule Britannia was based off a poem written by James Thomson, of the same name.
It was originally included as part of a masque (basically a kind of amateur musical play
enjoyed by nobility) about Alfred the Great of Wessex, and was performed at the country
home of Frederick, Prince of Wales on 1.August.1740.
Now, James Thomson was a huge fan of fostering a kind of pan-British identity, as a Scotsman
himself, who had lived much of his life in England, only a few decades after the United
Kingdom became a thing.
He really wanted to rally everyone for Britain, not for England, Scotland, Wales or Ireland,
hence the line, “Britons never, never, never shall be slaves”.
In reference to many historical figures who fought against those who tried to invade Britain,
notably the Romans and the Vikings (even if both of them actually did end up succeeding
in taking over parts of the island).
Australia Down on the other side of the world, parallel-universe-America
(who some apparently call “Australia”) uses Advance Australia Fair as its national
anthem, but many also use the song Waltzing Matilda.
In fact, Waltzing Matilda is actually considered Australia’s “unofficial anthem”, and
listening to its lyrics really reveals how Australian it is.
Seriously, I’d probably have understood that better had it been in German!
Now, “waltzing” can refer to “walking”, and a “matilda” is basically like a backpack.
So, the song’s about someone known as a “swagman”-- basically a laborer who would
travel from farm-to-farm while carrying their belongings in a swag (bedroll)-- making tea
in a billycan in a bushcamp, and catching a wild jumbuck (male sheep) to eat.
And then it ends with him being caught by the police and killing himself in the billabong
and becoming a ghost, I’m not even kidding (Oh, and “billabong” refers to what we
Americans call “oxbow lakes”).
Also, can we all just agree that Australian slang sounds really weird when coming out
of an American accent?
Norway Finally, leaving the Anglosphere behind, we
have Norway, whose anthem is Ja, vi elsker dette landet (Yes, we love this land -- as
if they need to clarify that), but one of Norway’s most famous patriotic songs is
Norge i rødt, hvitt og blått (Norway in Red, White and Blue -- sounds pretty familiar).
Norge i rødt, hvitt og blått was written during Nazi occupation in 1941 by Finn Bø,
Bias Bernhoft and Arild Feldborg, though the melody was actually written by Swedish composer
Lars-Erik Larsson.
Today, the song is often played in the Constitution Day parades, and is actually very famous,
despite the fact that it’s very hard to find information about it in English.
So yeah, sometimes countries might have too many anthems to go around, and this isn’t
even going into regional anthems and state songs.
Now, if you were still curious about how the actual anthem of the US is really just a parody
song in itself, head over to Mr. Betts’ Class to learn more.
Be sure to like and subscribe to both of our channels for weekly history and social studies
content that we both try to make as entertaining as possible.