Our Anthem? (Photo By John Schreiber, The Daily Campus)
British music producer Adam Kidron announced last week that he will record a Spanish-language version of the American National Anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner.”
He has enlisted the help of performers Wyclef Jean, hip-hop star Pitbull and Puerto Rican singers Carlos Ponce and Olga Tanon, among others to participate in the project, which he called an ode to immigrants seeking a better life in America.
This project doesn’t sit too well with Ed Board.
While Kidron and his performers are well within their right to make this recording, Ed Board feels it’s inappropriate and offensive to take the national anthem and translate it into another language.
The song, entitled “Nuestro Himno,” or “Our Anthem,” takes liberties in its translation in order to help the musicality of the song.
What’s next? Is someone going to make a Spanish version of the pledge of allegiance?
“The Star Spangled Banner” is a part of the United State’s cultural identity, and while there is no “official” language of the U.S., English is the predominant language here. Our anthem was written in English, it should stay in English.
Changing the language on this song is much different than other adaptations of the song. Many performers take liberties on musical arrangements and instrumentations and every performance of the anthem is unique. But when the lyrics are changed to suite another language, it changes the song. This song is a piece of our culture, and it should not be subjected to these changes.
What upsets Ed Board the most is that if roles were reversed, and an English-speaking American singer were to record another country’s anthem in English, they would be accused of Americanizing their anthem and desecrating their national identity.
If Rod Stewart made a recording of “Ardulfurataini Watan,” the national anthem of Iraq, as a way to support Iraqis as they rebuild, there would most certainly be a public outcry against him and his song.
Ed Board knows Kidron and his singers have good intentions, but “The Star Spangled Banner” is a song that should be left alone. While it’s great that the United States is a place where many cultures are able to come together, our National Anthem, like any other country’s, is unique to our nation. If we start changing the words of the most important song in the United States, then we risk a loss of the meaning of the lyrics. Besides, why mess with a good thing? We love “The Star Spangled Banner,” just the way it is.
