Similarities in National Anthems

 I recognize that!

It is known that some countries use or have used, in the past, the same melody (even the same lyrics) of the national anthem of other country as their own. Even today there are some territories that use exactly the same national anthem of other country. For example, both France and French Guiana use "La Marseillaise" as their national anthem. This is seen specially with non-independent territories. In other cases, one country just borrows the music of the other, just like Liechtenstein with “Oben am Jungen Rhein” which uses the melody of “God Save the Queen” from England. However, in some cases, we can see that certain national anthems are different, but somehow similar in some notes or lyrics. 

SURINAME & SOUTH AFRICA

The old national anthem of South Africa (Die Stem van Suid Afrika) shares similar notes with the national anthem of Suriname, which is older than the South African one. "God zij met ons Suriname" was composed by Johannes Corstianus de Puy in 1876, while "Die Stem van Suid Afrika" was composed by Marthinus Lourens de Villiers in 1921. I personally noticed this when I was doing videos for my channel. Perhaps there could be a common song in which the authors based their anthems or, at least, borrowed some notes. The structure of both anthems is similar, and this can be noticed especially in the first line of both anthems.

YUGOSLAVIA & POLAND

Perhaps, this is the most known similarity between two melodies of national anthems. The former national anthem of Yugoslavia, “Hej Sloveni”, was based in the current national anthem of Poland, “Mazurek Dąbrowskiego”. Both songs were composed during the 1820s by unknown authors. The similarity between the two anthems can be clearly heard in the first bars of the anthems. However, the Polish anthem has a faster tempo and has more repetitions that the Yugoslav one.

CHILE & BOLIVIA

In a previous article we talked about this. The national anthems of Chile and Bolivia are almost exactly the same in terms of structure, and you could even try and sing them with mixed lyrics. The truth is that the Chilean anthem was composed first by Ramón Carnicer, and the composer of the Bolivian anthem, Leopoldo Benedetto Vincenti, was inspired by the melody created by Carnicer. Vincenti knew the melody because he lived in Chile several years and worked in the Music Band of the Chilean Army, which used to play the anthem composed by Carnicer.

KYRGYZSTAN & THE KIRGHIZ SOVIET REPUBLIC

The current national anthem of Kyrgyzstan is based on the old anthem that was used in the country during Soviet times. It was composed by Nasır Davlesov and Qalıy Moldobasanov in 1992, maintaining the structure of the old anthem composed by Vladimir Vlasov, Abdylas Maldybaev and Vladimir Fere in 1946. The perfect example for this claim is the last line of the chorus. They even end with the same word!

ANDORRA & FRANCE

Although there are not many similarities between these two anthems, you can definitely hear them in certain parts of the Andorran anthem, like the first lines of “El Gran Carlemany”. This makes sense, as the little European nations lies on the Pyrenees between his big brothers France and Spain. Also, it is good to remember that Andorra keeps a close relationship with France, as the French President is also given the title of Co-Prince of Andorra.

They are hard to find, but do you think that there are more similarities in other national anthems?

Keep in mind that we are talking about similar notes or structures on anthems. There is a previous article in this blog where we talk about countries that share the same national anthem of the same melody.

Click here to check it out!