God Save the Queen

This article is about the UK & Commonwealth Royal Anthem. For the Sex Pistols song, see God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols song)

"God Save the Queen" is a patriotic song whose author is unknown. It is traditionally used as the national anthem of the United Kingdom and the royal anthem of Canada and the other Commonwealth realms, as well as the royal anthem of the British Royal Family. When the British monarch is male it becomes "God Save the King", as it was originally sung.

It should be noted that there is no authorised version. Indeed the anthem has never been officially adopted by Royal Proclamation nor Act of Parliament. In general only one, or rarely two, verses are ever sung [1]. There has been some debate about replacing "God Save the Queen" with "Jerusalem", another popular patriotic song, in England.

Table of contents

1 History
2 Use in the Commonwealth
3 Use elsewhere
4 Other UK anthems
5 Performance
6 Lyrics
7 Lyrics

7.1 First verse in French, as sung in Canada
7.2 Additional verse sung in Canada

8 Footnote
9 External links
10 See also

History

It's now generally thought that the melody was composed in its present form by Dr Henry Carey, although many of the musical phrases were present in various earlier melodies, leading to some confusion.

The first public performance of the work is now believed to be when Carey sang it during a dinner in 1740 in honour of Admiral Edward Vernon who had captured the Spanish harbour of Porto Bello (then in Colombia, now Panama during the War of Jenkins' Ear.)

Traditionally, the first performance was thought to have been in 1745, when it was sung in support of George II after a defeat by the Jacobite claimant to the British throne, "Bonnie Prince Charlie", who had widespread Scottish support. This support caused the later attachment of a verse, shown last in the list below, which has an anti-Scottish sentiment, and is rarely (if ever) sung nowadays.

Use in the Commonwealth

It was formerly used as a national anthem by most of the Commonwealth Realms, including Australia, Canada, and Jamaica. It has since been replaced by "Advance Australia Fair," "O Canada," and "Jamaica, Land We Love" respectively, though it remains those countries' royal anthem. It continues to be recognised as the national anthem of New Zealand, together with "God Defend New Zealand". It is also the former national anthem of Ireland, replaced in the 1920s by Amhrán na bhFiann (in English, 'The Soldier's Song').

Use elsewhere

"God Save the Queen" was the very first song to be used as a national anthem, and its tune was either used as or officially adopted as the national anthem for several other countries, including those of Denmark, Germany (unofficial), Russia (until 1833), Sweden and Switzerland.

The tune is still used as the national anthem of Liechtenstein. This was a source of embarassment to Winter Olympic officials in 1980 when Hanni Wenzell won this country's first gold medal ever, and they had no record of her country's national anthem. It is also the melody to the popular United States song My Country, Tis of Thee. The rock band Queen played "God Save the Queen" at the end of all of their concerts.

Other UK anthems

Frequently, when an anthem is needed for one of the component countries of the UK -- at an international sporting event, for instance -- an alternate song is used:

Wales has its own recognised anthem in Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau;
Scotland uses either Flower of Scotland or Scotland the Brave;
England often uses Jerusalem or Land of Hope and Glory.

In international football matches England uses God Save the Queen while Scotland uses Flower of Scotland and Wales uses Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau.

Performance

Traditionally the tune is played at a slow and sombre pace which many consider to be dreary. Occasionally events use a faster and livelier beat to reduce that effect. Comedian Billy Connolly performed a sketch broadcast on TV comparing the UK's slow tune to the lively ones of many other nations and suggested that it should be replaced by the theme tune to The Archers.

In 1977 during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver jubilee, a punk rock band called the Sex Pistols released an anarchistic and anti-royalist song with the same title. Attempting to play the song from a boat on the river Thames outside The Palace of Westminster on the Jubilee holiday itself (a day which was billed as a national party), the band was arrested by the British police. See: God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols).

The anthem was traditionally played at closedown on BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. BBC2 and ITV dropped this practice in the early 1990s, but it continued on BBC1 until December 1997.

During the Queen's Golden Jubilee pop concert at Buckingham Palace on June 4, 2002, Brian May performed the anthem on electric guitar from the palace roof.

Lyrics

Since "God Save the Queen" is the Royal Anthem of Canada, the first verse has been translated into French for use in that country, as shown below. As sung in English in Canada, "God Save the Queen" has an additional English verse, sung after the first or second verse, which is also given below.