Proposed lyrics for Spanish national anthem are un gran fracaso

Spain's most recent attempt at coming up lyrics for its national anthem, La Marcha Real ("The Royal March"), has become an embarrassing flop.

Spanish hasn't had lyrics for its anthem since three decades ago, when lyrics that had been adopted by the Franco regime were dropped. Hoping that its athletes could sing their anthem when they collect medals, Spain's national Olympics committee launched a contest for new lyrics. Some 7,000 entries later, the contest judges picked a winner, the work of a 52-year-old unemployed resident of Madrid, Paulino Cubero.

But the selected lyrics, which were to be sung in public for the first time by Spanish opera superstar Placido Domingo, leaked last week and immediately became the subject of national criticism. You can read the lyrics here and see what you think.

The top complaint was that the words were banal, and I'd have a hard time disputing that. The words are far from majestic — in fact, the words are simple enough that they probably wouldn't be beyond the reach of a first-year Spanish student. And with the exception of mentioning Spain by name in the first line, there's nothing in the song that is true any more of Spain than it is of any other democratic country — it is little more than a simple ode to peace, brotherhood, democracy and nature's beauty.

But the song's banality wasn't the only concern: Some said the opening line, "¡Viva España!" was overly reminiscent of the Franco regime. Others thought it was too nationalistic, something that rubbed some Basques and Catalonians the wrong way. Others thought it said nothing about Spain being a country of several distinct cultures.

By the beginning of this week, it became clear that the Spanish parliament would never adopt the new lyrics, and the Olympics committee said it was withdrawing the proposal. But it promised to try again.

Here's where you can learn more about the anthem:

• Proposed (and withdrawn) lyrics
• Video of Spanish schoolchildren singing the song from ABC.es.
• History of the Spanish national anthem (in Spanish)
• Original About.com article on the lyrics from the Spain Travel site