World Cup of Anthems! Week 1

[degenerasian]

Welcome to the World Cup of Anthems, where Swampers will choose the world's best national anthem.

Format. There are 198 Countries divided into 4 tiers. Tiers decided based on factors including familiarity of the country, familiarity with the anthem and how well they do in sports.

Each voting period for a group is one week (appox, from Monday noon to Monday noon)
Round 1 (94 countries): Divided into 4 groups of 10 and 6 groups of 9. Top 3 advance to Round 2
Round 2 (78 countries): 30 qualifiers from Round 1 are joined by 48 new countries to make 6 groups of 10 and 2 groups of 9. Top 3 advance to Round 3
Round 3 (64 countries): 24 qualifiers from Round 2 are joined by 40 new countries to make 8 groups of 8. Top 2 advance to Round 4
Round 4 (32 countries): 16 qualifiers from Round 3 are joined by 16 new countries to make 4 groups of 8. Top 2 advance to Final Round
Final Round: 1 group of 8, final tally determines winner.

[degenerasian]

Week 1, Round 1, Group 1 (Suriname, Mali, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tajikistan, Mauritius, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Burkina Faso, Andorra.

Vote for as many as you want. Anthems are below, in most cases, I have tried to find a solo singer version.

[+] spoiler

Suriname



Mali


Madagascar



Mozambique


Tajikistan


Mauritius



Saint Lucia


Grenada



Burkina Faso


Andorra

[sancarlos]

All I know is that the USA's anthem will be like Montana State in March Madness.

[rass]

Thanks degen. Hopefully three months from now you'll do what jerloma and mister d couldn't do and make it to round 2 of your endeavor.

[The Sybian]

That first version of Suriname sounds like a bad 70s sitcom theme song.

[Ryan]

Yeah I never finished the Flags thing either. Good luck!

I can't stop giggling at the thought of everyone at a St. Lucia soccer game starting to sit down after the first 30 seconds but then the second verse comes in and everyone just rolls their eyes and starts doing the back-and-forth fidget lean. BREVITY, PEOPLE!

[bapo!]

I'm playing these as I read, making little notes here and there. 'Sounds like a Christmas carol.' 'Too long.' 'Kind of pretty.' 'Very Soviet, fuck yes.'

[Pruitt]

Some of the lyrics are unreal...

Burkina Faso:

Screen Shot 2021-02-08 at 3.14.52 PM.png (230.89 KiB) Viewed 389 times

[Johnny Carwash]

Hot take: The US anthem is good. It at least sounds distinct, which puts it in the upper 20% worldwide.

[Nonlinear FC]

[+] spoiler

Suriname - Kicking serious bass? Ok. Way too long.

Mali - Solid. Good length. Kind of a weak ending.

Madagascar - The shorter version is tight! first place out of these 3. The fact that the crowd has the dudes doing the bass backing? TIGHT.

Mozambique - Very good. Would be up there with Madagascar if we had a tighter liver version.

Tajikistan - Meh. Stayed on same handful of rather dire notes the entire run. Not all that inspiring.

Mauritius - English, huh? 80's sitcom or Eurovision song contest entry. Play Ya Ya Ding Dong! Not a very good song.

St. Lucia - Another in the "hey, about we don't switch through more than 4 notes" songs. Sounded like a bad day at church, honestly. Very dirge like.

Grenada - Solid effort. Lots of inspirational swells, not too long. Live version lets you see people getting stuck into it.

Burkina Faso - Holy shit. This was a journey. I mean, I guess if you want the entire history in an anthem, here you are. Jeebus.

Andorra - Just...Holy shit again. Thought it couldn't be worse than Burkina Faso and Andorra drives a bus that the whole a LENGTHY family tree breakdown up front. Had a tinge of O Canada, but not enough.

[bapo!]

Some of the lyrics are unreal...

Burkina Faso:

Yeah, the lyrics are a little over the top, but as autotuned anthems go, it's kinda great. It's the clubhouse leader.

[rass]

Is there only one recording of Surinam’s?

ETA - guess not? Every version I played on YT was the same as that first one up there, just different moving pictures

[Nonlinear FC]

see below

[Nonlinear FC]

Think some of you guys are missing the boat on Madagascar. Here, let the white people explain it:




ETA - Seriously, have you ever heard an anthem where the male and female populace harmonizes like that? Honestly, the more I listen the more it moves into O Canada top tier level anthems.


If you haven't listened to the live version degen put up, you're really missing out.






I might need to get out and socialize a bit more.

[rass]

Madagascar was my fave from that group

[MaxWebster]

missed this - heroic effort, degen. am going through the anthems now

[degenerasian]

bump, get your votes in if you haven't.

[Nonlinear FC]

vote for Madagascar if you haven't.

FIFY

[MaxWebster]

done - thanks for the reminder


i am and never have been much of a lyrics guy but Burkina Faso bringing it with almost a weird Finnish-metal vibe. I had a hard time not giving points for that.

[degenerasian]

Bump. Last day to get votes in. Group 2 starts tomorrow.

[Tom 1860]

Obviously I have not read the whole thread, I have no idea if we are looking for the best anthems etc...

If we are, here is your winner...

Football: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwdZOHm8r-Y

Rugby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM4mIlYKG9s

[Tom 1860]

Also, slightly linked, Hibs football fans singing "Sunshine on Leith" is pretty special...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdP_KK75ThI

[degenerasian]

Obviously I have not read the whole thread, I have no idea if we are looking for the best anthems etc...

If we are, here is your winner...

Football: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwdZOHm8r-Y

Rugby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM4mIlYKG9s

Yup, we are looking for the best anthems and we will get to Wales at some point :)