oh can you say si?

So someone's translated the US national anthem into Spanish and the more extreme Republicans are having predictable hissy-fits. Dubbed "The Illegal Immigrant Anthem" by one particularly mean-minded pundit, the song was actually the brainchild of a British music producer, who got lots of Spanish-speaking stars together to record it.

Personally, I don't get what all the fuss is about. Translating a song doesn't kill it. I've sung die Fledermaus in English, and it's still a Viennese opera; Figaro in English is still Figaro. Rossini translated God Save the King into Italian for his opera Il Viaggio a Reims, and the Houses of Parliament are still standing. The Anglican hymnal contains a hymn to the tune of the German national anthem, and so far as I can see, this has caused no harm to the German people. (The tune is Austrian, anyway.) Being translated into Spanish won't alter The Star-Spangled Banner's essential nature: it will still be the stilted, uncomfortable screech of an anthem we know and love.

Because, yeah, let's face it: The Star-Spangled Banner is a lousy national anthem. The poem is awkwardly structured and doesn't really fit the tune, which is fairly unmemorable anyway. To an untrained voice, it's virtually unsingable: it covers a range of one and a half octaves; two if you take the optional high note near the end. People at ballparks don't sing along to it. All they do is yell "Oh!" right after the bridge. To be sung before sporting events is surely the most important function of any national anthem, and ours has tanked spectacularly at that. Athletes can't even weep along to it at the Olympics.

Every few years, some thinking Congressperson tries to get legislation passed to make America the Beautiful the national anthem, on the grounds that it's a better poem, better music, and praises the nation rather than the sodding flag. It's about peace, beauty, prosperity and building a better world, while the current anthem focuses on kicking British arse. America the Beautiful is easier to sing, since the range is only a ninth (an octave plus a tone.) The high note comes right where it should, on "A-mer-i-ca" rather than on some crap about bombs in the air. Ray Charles recorded it, which ought to qualify it automatically.

Every time, the legislation gets knocked back.

Philistines. Boooooooooo.

Anyone wants me, I'll be over in the corner singing "Washington DC" by the Magnetic Fields.

oh can you say si?

So someone's translated the US national anthem into Spanish and the more extreme Republicans are having predictable hissy-fits. Dubbed "The Illegal Immigrant Anthem" by one particularly mean-minded pundit, the song was actually the brainchild of a British music producer, who got lots of Spanish-speaking stars together to record it.

Personally, I don't get what all the fuss is about. Translating a song doesn't kill it. I've sung die Fledermaus in English, and it's still a Viennese opera; Figaro in English is still Figaro. Rossini translated God Save the King into Italian for his opera Il Viaggio a Reims, and the Houses of Parliament are still standing. The Anglican hymnal contains a hymn to the tune of the German national anthem, and so far as I can see, this has caused no harm to the German people. (The tune is Austrian, anyway.) Being translated into Spanish won't alter The Star-Spangled Banner's essential nature: it will still be the stilted, uncomfortable screech of an anthem we know and love.

Because, yeah, let's face it: The Star-Spangled Banner is a lousy national anthem. The poem is awkwardly structured and doesn't really fit the tune, which is fairly unmemorable anyway. To an untrained voice, it's virtually unsingable: it covers a range of one and a half octaves; two if you take the optional high note near the end. People at ballparks don't sing along to it. All they do is yell "Oh!" right after the bridge. To be sung before sporting events is surely the most important function of any national anthem, and ours has tanked spectacularly at that. Athletes can't even weep along to it at the Olympics.

Every few years, some thinking Congressperson tries to get legislation passed to make America the Beautiful the national anthem, on the grounds that it's a better poem, better music, and praises the nation rather than the sodding flag. It's about peace, beauty, prosperity and building a better world, while the current anthem focuses on kicking British arse. America the Beautiful is easier to sing, since the range is only a ninth (an octave plus a tone.) The high note comes right where it should, on "A-mer-i-ca" rather than on some crap about bombs in the air. Ray Charles recorded it, which ought to qualify it automatically.

Every time, the legislation gets knocked back.

Philistines. Boooooooooo.

Anyone wants me, I'll be over in the corner singing "Washington DC" by the Magnetic Fields.