World Cup trivia: why don’t Spain’s players sing the anthem?

Before every game world Cupplayers line up to sing the National anthem of their countries. The Spaniards, however, do not sing. If this made you curious, know that this is not a protest or a lack of love for the country: the Spain’s national anthem is one of the few in the world that doesn’t have lyrics.🇧🇷

called from royal march (yes, did you know that Spain is a monarchy, with a royal family and all?), the hymn was first documented in the 18th century, in 1761. It got the melody it has today in 1908, and the version that is in force until the present day was made official in 1942.

During all these years, many lyrics versions have been proposed, some better accepted than others. In 1928 a letter was established, named “Long live Spain“, but at the end of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, in the 1970s, this version was abandoned by the population, who no longer accepted the work, associated with the dictatorial regime.

In 2007, on the eve of the beijing olympics, the Spanish Olympic Committee held a contest to write lyrics for the anthem. The winning version, however, is not official and has not been adopted by the population. That is why, even today, Spaniards do not sing the hymn, they just listen respectfully. By the way: the other countries that have national anthems without lyrics are Bosnia and Herzegovina🇧🇷 kosovo and san marino🇧🇷