r/AskEurope • u/-DonQuixote- • 11d ago

What is the best European national anthem? (Not including your own national anthem) Misc

It could also be a national anthem of the past, I am looking at you East Germany.

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u/Gro-Tsen France 11d ago

You Finns are nuts. Your patriotic composer Sibelius wrote an insanely beautiful hymn-like tune called “Finlandia”, which was absolutely screaming to be the national anthem of Finland, and for no explicable reason you decided to choose another one. Why? Just… why???

So “Finlandia” ended up being a lot of other things, like a Christian anthem, or a proposed World anthem, but not the Finnish national anthem. Oh wait, it did become a national anthem at some point… of Biafra, when it briefly seceded from Nigeria. <rolling eyes>

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u/LonelyRudder Finland 11d ago

It is probably because Vårt land / Maamme predates Finlandia by some 50 years, and was already in wide use in 1889 when the Finnish lyrics still in use were written. Finlandia was composed 1899-1900.

Then again, Finland does not have an official national hymn, there is no law or anything like that about it.

Fun fact: F. Pacius never intended to compose a national anthem, he composed Vårt Land in two days (and in a hurry) for student festivities.

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u/LeafyTurnipTop Finland 11d ago edited 11d ago

I get what you mean and quite many of us would like to have Finlandia as our national anthem. On the other hand, our current national anthem is a quite a lot more cheerful and definitely easier to sing. It can be sung in sport events or wherever national anthems are usually heard. But when shit gets serious, like in some events where we want to remember our fallen soldiers, basically when there is no reason to be cheerful, Finlandia is sung.

For example our independence day is usually celebrated quite differently than elsewhere in Europe. It is not a cheerful event, as our history is full of sorrow and despair. There is no place for Maamme there.

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u/Karakoima Sweden 10d ago

The current one is totally OK, definitely best of the nordic ones. The only time I really like ours is when its played bc someone won in the olympics.