From a strictly musical point of view, which countries have good national anthems?

I like La Marseillaise from France.
This is my favorite version of it, of course.

High-five!!

For Borat, it would have been high-four; he was saving the middle finger for another activity.

She shoots, she scores!

Kazakhstan

I like Canada’s, performed here as only Canadians could do it.

^^^ Perfect. I just sent this to my daughter in BC and her boyfriend, a native Vancouverian.

I heard Jamaica’s for the first time (Olympics).
Beautiful.

Okay, that wasn’t the best version. I lost the sound on my comp for a minute and just picked a random version of the anthem off of Youtube (didn’t actually hear it until now). :)

I don’t know about being objectively good in terms of composition, but I always thought the Soviet National Anthem was pretty badass sounding. Apparently when translated into English, it’s just a lot of trash talking too!

Brazil’s sounds like an operatic prelude.

From a musical point of view, I think North Korea’s national anthem, Aegukka, is beautiful.
Not trying to be patriotic, but the United States’ sounds nice too.

I’ve always enjoyed the Star-Spangled Banner as performed by military bands, and much less so when sung. “Land of the free; home of the brave” just sounds sort of ironic and snarky now.

I do like Canada’s anthem, lyrics and all.

Wow, @marinelife, I never even imagined a didgeridoo made of beer cans before. That was pretty awesome.

Musically speaking, I’ve always loved the Canadian one from the moment I heard it (when I worked at a Canadian summer camp after my Sophomore year in college).

The one for the USA is notoriously difficult to sing and has been mangled by many.

I find it difficult to imagine anyone doing that with “Oh Canada” (unless they’re tone deaf). Great tune.

And I can’t remember which country uses the same melody (but different words) as that great old hymn “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken”

I believe that tune was done by a great classical composer (Bach, Beethoven ?) so no wonder it’s so majestic sounding.

Likewise for “God Save the Queen”. I prefer the words to the hymn since I’m not a Brit, but great tune nonetheless. Can’t remember who the composer is; although, I probably should :)

And there is the East German one, Auferstanden aus Ruinen

I was amazed by the one from Ethiopia during a gold medal ceremony.