[ Non-USA ] Do entertainers regularly mangle your Country's National Anthem? FORKED

[Joker]

Yeah, don't get me started about the Spanish. They don't even try. All they do is hum the anthem like when you're drunk and trying to sing the verse to some song with a well known refrain.

Bunch of posers.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I've always thought the US should have picked a song that was easier to sing, like "America the Beautiful" or "Yankee Doodle". But then, I also think the Aussies should have picked "Waltzing Matilda" as their anthem.

 

[jonesy]

There's a lot of Finns who feel that Finlandia should be our national anthem. We don't actually have one by constitution, but we've been using Maamme for the purpose. The only good thing (in my opinion) about Maamme is that it's almost impossible to mangle it. You just need to make a lot of noise when you sing it.

 

[Thunderfoot]

There's a lot of Finns who feel that Finlandia should be our national anthem. We don't actually have one by constitution, but we've been using Maamme for the purpose. The only good thing (in my opinion) about Maamme is that it's almost impossible to mangle it. You just need to make a lot of noise when you sing it.

However, isn't it used whenever a "National Anthem" is needed or called for by decorum? I love that tune BTW - probably my favorite National Anthem (that isn't in this case ).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

But it needs more cowbell...

 

[jonesy]

However, isn't it used whenever a "National Anthem" is needed or called for by decorum?

Yup. We even call it our national anthem. It's just not one by law.

 

[cyderak]

And Christine Aguilerra was just on the Grammy award show singing a song in honer of Aretha Franklin. You know, that gargantuan mass of a woman who pioneered the act of butchering the National Anthem.

You remember that scene in "Big Trouble in Little China" where Thunder got so distraught at the sight of a dead Lo-Pan that he just kept growing until he blew up?

One of these days........BOOOOM. All that'll be left is a Puddle 'O' Aretha.

And when Aretha is done I hope they play a horribly butchered, 90 minute version of Taps for her.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You mean Cream of Soul.

 

[billd91]

I've always thought the US should have picked a song that was easier to sing, like "America the Beautiful" or "Yankee Doodle".

At least it was set to the tune of a reasonably popular drinking song. That's got to count for something, right?

 

[Kaodi]

In my opinion, the ideal national anthem is one that should be at least within the natural capabilities of anyone who has bothered to try and get something out of their voice. It may be aesthetically unfortunate, but some people just naturally have a very narrow register. After all, an anthem is symbolic, but moreso the performance of it. If some people are excluded from the performance of an anthem, then there is a weak but definite sense in which they are excluded from the collective for their natural inability to do their own anthem any justice.

Now, an anthem that can be sung without butchering by anyone but can be made to be a real crowdstopper by an exceptional singer, that would be great. Because there is a competing sense in which an anthem should be a challenge to aspire to. The American anthem is lousy because some people will just be unable to sing it, but it is also good because it is a challenge even for those people with the register. My own countries anthem, in contrast, is I think pretty good in the first category, but does not quite fare as well in the second way. Our anthem might be somewhat different from that of other countries though because radical interpretation is pretty much the norm for it, so I suppose while the song itself is not challenging, it takes some effort to get the most mileage out of it.