White Rabbit (who gets up long before I do - something to do with timezones!) alerted me this morning, and through the day, various links came in. I don't really have time to blog from work, far too much to do (which is a good thing) but I was sticking the links in the comments on a previous entry.
¿Qué le parece la retirada de la letra-express del himno nacional?
National anthem lyrics withdrawn
El Comité Olímpico anuncia la retirada de la letra del himno
Spanish Olympic Committee cancel the National Anthem Gala
Controversy over lyrics stalls Placido Domingo's dream of singing Spanish anthem
Spain drops national anthem lyrics
It seems there are three problems with the new lyrics, selected out of 7,000 entries submitted by the public: the line 'Viva Espana' is Franco-ist (me in my ignorance just thinks the next line should be 'I'm boarding the Costa Brava plane'); they don't really take into consideration the separatist/nationalist cultures of regions such as Catalonia and Basque; and, they're a bit rubbish. So, it's back to the drawing board.
I suggest that maybe Spain learns a thing or two from South Africa, which manages to have five different languages in it, an artificial construct, of course, but, I think, it works. (Perhaps Britain could do likewise, mixing English, Welsh, Cornish, Gaelic and Glasgie).
I am not sure whether Plácido's refusal to sing it quite counts as a divo strop, but it seems a very good reason for such a rare occurrence ;-)
I have to confess that I know very little about the Franco era in Spain, except what I know of the International Brigade (from a friend I met through the Labour Party and from George Orwell's writings) and Guernica, but I do know it's an era that Spain has no need to recall.
