Chances are we’ve only been able to hum along to a few… it’s Rainy Days and Songdays’ Favourite Euros anthems.
Vive La France
La Marseillaise, France: And the proof is whether your song will last the test of time.
Claude Joseph Rouger de Lille is long forgotten.
Long after be penned this revolutionary rouser in 1792.
Charlie wrote his classic, not on the French Riviera but in Strasbourg.
And it is easy to see why he was so inspired by this Medieval cobbled town on the banks of the Rhine.
There is a spoof version rugby song.
About a Frenchman going to the lavatory with the pay-off (and sing along here… ou est le papier?).
Germany Wunderbar
Deutschland Uber Alles: And on the right side of the Rhine the Teutons will be belting out this tune.
And when you boast the composers Germany has (they do classical music as well as der fussball) then you pick from them.
This ditty is a Joseph Haydn composition.
And, yes we know he’s Austrian but not of the sane ilk as that wee madman Austrian we’ve all came to loathe.
Azzurri Azzurri-eyed
Il Canto degli Italiani, Italy: No, it’s not Nessun Dorma as stirring as Andrea Bocelli’s rendition was at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
This 19th-century call to arms gained traction around the Risorgimento and unification.
It got bumped by the monarchy for the Marcia Reale.
But thankfully was endorsed by the new republic after World War II.
The Russians are coming
Gosurdastvennyy Gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii, Russia: And another revisionist anthem which oozes Russian eastern mysticism.
This stomper replaced another classic The Internationale because it’s more Russian-centric.
And in typical Russian fashion it has become deStalinised along the way.
Winning in the Valleys
Hen Wlad Fy Nadau, Wales: With three home nations from which to choose it had to be the Welsh anthem over the English and Scottish dirges.
Better too with it sung in Welsh.
And isn’t it heartening too to see all the Wales players, even those of who are only Welsh by grandparentage, giving it a go.
Which is more than arch-Brexiteer and former Wales Secretary of State John Redwood can muster.
So there’s our Rainydays and Songdays’ favourite Euros anthems…
Now if only Scotland and England could change theirs.
