01The source: God Save the King
Nobody knows who wrote it. The earliest printed version appeared in 1744 in the anthology Thesaurus Musicus. It took off in September 1745, when London's Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres sang it in support of George II during the Jacobite rising; Thomas Arne arranged the Drury Lane version.
- Attribution claims: John Bull (1562–1628), Henry Carey and James Oswald have all been proposed. Musicologist Percy Scholes judged the claims untenable or doubtful and recommended "traditional".
- Why it travelled: a short, hymn-like melody in a galliard rhythm, easy to fit new words in any language.
- Where it's official today: national anthem of the UK; co-national anthem of New Zealand; royal anthem of Canada, Australia (declared 2022), Belize, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Isle of Man.
Source: Wikipedia
02America's version: My Country, 'Tis of Thee
For about a century it was one of America's unofficial national anthems, until Congress adopted "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1931. Its official title is simply "America".
- Author: Samuel Francis Smith (1808–1895), a Boston-born Harvard graduate and later Baptist minister, wrote the words aged 23 while studying at Andover Theological Seminary.
- How it happened: choirmaster Lowell Mason handed Smith a batch of German songbooks to translate. One tune caught his eye and he wrote fresh words to it — probably without realising it was "God Save the King" (the Germans sang it as "Heil dir im Siegerkranz").
- First performance: 4 July 1831, a children's Independence Day celebration at Park Street Church, Boston. Mason published it in 1832.
- The irony: a hymn to a king became a hymn to liberty from that king. Harvard's president later declined Smith an honorary degree, remarking the song was better known for its tune, which Smith hadn't written.
- Famous moments: Marian Anderson sang it to 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939; Martin Luther King Jr. quoted its opening in "I Have a Dream" (1963); Aretha Franklin sang it at Obama's 2009 inauguration.
It has five verses. The first, which most Americans know:
My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing; Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrims' pride, From every mountainside Let freedom ring!
Source: Wikipedia
03Everyone else who borrowed the tune
America wasn't alone: in the 19th century the melody was Europe's go-to royal anthem. Today Liechtenstein is the only other country whose national anthem still uses it — so when England play Liechtenstein at football, the same tune is played twice.
| Country | Song | Words by | Years in official use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liechtenstein | Oben am jungen Rhein | Jakob Josef Jauch, 1850s | 1920–today (text trimmed 1963) |
| Norway | Kongesangen (royal anthem) | — | Still in use |
| Switzerland | Rufst du, mein Vaterland | Johann Rudolf Wyss, 1811 | c.1848–1961 |
| Prussia / German Empire | Heil dir im Siegerkranz | Heinrich Harries 1790, adapted by B. G. Schumacher 1793 | Prussia 1795–1918; Empire 1871–1918 |
| Russian Empire | The Prayer of Russians | Vasily Zhukovsky | 1816–1833 |
| Sweden, Iceland, Hawaii, Siam, Greece | Various royal songs | — | Briefly, 19th century |
Two footnotes worth knowing. Harries's German words were first written in 1790 for King Christian VII of Denmark, then re-purposed for Prussia. And Switzerland dropped its version in 1961 partly because the tune's royal associations sat badly with a neutral republic at international events; the Swiss Psalm replaced it.
Source: Wikipedia
04Oman: a Royal Navy bandmaster's salute
Oman's anthem, Nashid as-Salaam as-Sultani ("The Sultan's Salute"), was composed by a Briton. James Frederick Mills, bandmaster of the cruiser HMS Hawkins, wrote it during a visit to Muscat, and it was first played on 10 December 1932.
- The occasion: Sultan Said bin Taimur was to visit the ship, and the government of Muscat and Oman asked for a musical salutation to greet him. A ceremonial fanfare became the national anthem.
- Original words: by poet Rashid bin Uzayyiz al-Khusaibi, praising Said bin Taimur.
- 1970: after Qaboos bin Said took power and the country was renamed from "Muscat and Oman" to "Oman", new words were adopted. Wikipedia credits the new lyrics to Hafiz bin Salim al-Gasani and a rearrangement to Egyptian composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab.
- 1996: a light re-harmonisation on 6 November 1996; Bernard Ebbinghaus is credited as arranger on modern recordings, including the Olympic versions.
- 2020: after Qaboos died, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq decreed on 20 February 2020 that his predecessor's name be removed; the last three lines were changed.
So the words a listener heard depend on the era: pre-1970 words for Said bin Taimur, the Qaboos-era words until 2020, or today's revised ending. The Mills melody runs through all of them.
Sources: Wikipedia, nationalanthems.info
05Other anthems with British hands on them
Oman is the clearest Gulf case, but Britons wrote or helped write anthems elsewhere in the former empire — and in Malaysia's case, famous British composers were turned down.
| Country | Anthem | British involvement | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oman | Nashid as-Salaam as-Sultani | Music by James Frederick Mills, Royal Navy bandmaster | 1932–today |
| Nigeria | Nigeria, We Hail Thee | Words by Lillian Jean Williams, a British expatriate civil servant; music by "Frances Benda", pen name of a London music teacher | 1960–1978; readopted May 2024 |
| Kenya | Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu | Graham Hyslop, Nairobi cathedral organist, sat on the five-member commission that set a Pokomo lullaby | Written 1963, adopted 1968 |
| Malaysia | Negaraku | Commissioned entries from Benjamin Britten and William Walton were rejected; the Perak state anthem's tune (originally French) was chosen instead | 1957–today |
| Fiji | God Bless Fiji | English words by Michael Prescott; tune is an American hymn, "Dwelling in Beulah Land" | 1970–today |
Nigeria's story has a twist: the colonial-era anthem was replaced by "Arise, O Compatriots" in 1978, then brought back in 2024 amid criticism over consultation and its wording.
06Oman's neighbours wrote their own
Most other Gulf states under British protection did not get British-composed anthems. Kuwait's 1978 anthem is by Ibrahim Al-Soula. Bahrain's 1942 tune grew out of its police band and was reworked after independence in 1971. Qatar's wordless 1954–1996 anthem was only 11 bars long and possibly of Indian origin. What they share with Oman is the short "Arab fanfare" style — a salute to the ruler rather than a song for the people.
Where Oman's ruler was greeted with a Royal Navy bandmaster's fanfare, the new United Arab Emirates turned to Egypt.
The UAE makes the sharpest contrast. Ishy Bilady, adopted in 1971, is credited to Saad Abdel Wahab, though some sources name his uncle Mohammed Abdel Wahab — the same composer credited with reworking Oman's anthem in 1970. It stayed wordless for 15 years; in 1986 the education minister gave poet Aref Al Sheikh Abdullah Al Hassan three days to write lyrics, which the Cabinet approved.