Oh see, can you see? It's a brief history of national anthems. I'm Mimi Fotz, and this is Hello From the Van. A national anthem is a patriotic song set to rouse the faculties of both men and beasts to bring energy and pride to those who inhabit a country. But where did national anthems begin? Most national anthems began as poems that would later be set to music at the request of national leaders. Germany, England, and the United States all had their national anthems start this way. Another common denominator is that the writing of these poems and songs normally accompanied a great change in government or leadership. History is full of great changes in power. Citizens rising up against those who dominate them has been a through line for all of humanity. And at some point, it became common practice to give your revolution a soundtrack. Let me give you the history. In the 1800s, there was a lot of political changes happening all over the world. It was a time of great tumult and war for a lot of fledgling nations. The Spanish-American Wars for Independence were happening, and huge changes to national leadership were happening all over South America. Chile, Argentina, Peru, and Brazil all got their national anthems during the early 1800s, but changes were happening in Europe as well. Belgium, Romania, Sweden all had their national anthems written at this time too. Again, all rising from uprisings and war. This continued into the late 1800s as tumult across Europe influenced newly formed nations to raise a song. Portugal, Greece, Lithuania, Germany, and Ireland all got their official songs during the late 1800s. In the Eastern Hemisphere, national anthems have followed a similar pattern, but a lot of their national anthems have come out of the 1900s instead of the 1800s. India, China, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Singapore were all highly affected by continuous conflicts and didn't get national anthems until the 1900s. Of note here, several of these countries have continued to change their national anthems as leadership changes have continued to affect each nation. A great example of this is the Koreas. In South Korea, they didn't get a national anthem until 1948, because that's when it was formed as a nation. North Korea also adopted their national anthem around this time as well. A huge influx of national anthems happened in the early 1900s as the Olympic Charter of 1920 introduced the playing of national anthems for gold medal winners. This gave nations a reason to adopt a national anthem. If you were winning, you wanted your epic theme to play for everyone to hear. Even the United States got on board with this official national anthem trend at this time. While the Star Spangled Banner had been a rallying cry amongst the nation for over a hundred years, it wasn't officially made the national anthem of the United States of America until March 3rd, 1931. So yeah, you can thank the Olympics for national anthems as we know them, and for the fun fact that we normally play national anthems before sporting events. Yep, that's all the Olympic charter of 1920. All of this said, who gets to determine which song is the official song of a nation? If it's a song written by the revolutionaries, when do those revolutionaries have enough power to be in power to declare a national song? Well, like most adult concerns, it's a little messy. You see, in some countries, the national anthem is, like I said, a rallying cry, a sacred song, a hymn, if you will, that brings emotion and pride to those who sing it. And in some countries, the national anthem is used as a way to control or coerce a population. In these countries, citizens are forced to sing the song or face physical or social consequences. Singing the national anthem, even if you don't agree with it, is seen as a sign of loyalty to those in power. Like most great things, a national anthem is a double-edged sword. Well, it can be used to rally a nation in love and dignity for who and what they are. It can also be used to force compliance to those who abuse their power. Think of it like ice cream. Let's say you love ice cream. You've always loved ice cream. You want to share it with everyone, and you're always telling everyone how great ice cream is and how much you like it. Then one day, someone in power says, here's a script of what you have to say about ice cream and our specific flavor of ice cream. And if you don't tell everyone how much you love this ice cream and recite this ice cream song, well then I'll just take away your home and your family. It might sour your love of ice cream, wouldn't it? Yeah, tyrannical governments can do that. We better stop there before we get into political nonsense to round the episode out and to feed all of those brains out there who love random bits of knowledge. Let's speed run national anthem facts from around the world. Norway didn't officially adopt their national anthem until 2019. So just a couple years ago. Spain, Bosnia, Kosovo, and San Marino all have national anthems that have no official lyrics. They are only music, no words. Japan has the oldest lyrics of any national anthem, as theirs is a poem written by an unnamed author in the high-end period, written sometime between 794 and 1185. Well, it is the oldest lyrics. They didn't get a melody until the 1880s. The Netherlands actually has the oldest music using a tune from 1572. Cyprus is the only known country without an official anthem of their own, as they use Greece and the national anthem of Turkey. Ironically, Greece has enough national anthem to share, as they have the longest national anthem coming in at 158 verses. Luckily, not all 158 verses are played anytime Greece gets a gold medal. In comparison, the shortest anthem is from Uganda, coming in at eight short bars or two lines of music. And finally, over 44 countries had their national anthems written by foreign composers. For example, Albania's national anthem was written by a Romanian, Somalia's national anthem was written by an Italian, and so on and so forth. In short, it doesn't really matter where you come from, it matters where you're going. I'm Mimi Fotz, and this has been Hello from the Van.