The piece begins with the national anthem of Uruguay, Himno Nacional de Uruguay, which is commonly regarded as the longest in the world, and usually runs between four and seven minutes in performance. Seven seconds later, the anthem of Guatemala (Himno Nacional de Guatemala, colloquially known as Guatemala Feliz!) enters, followed soon after by the distinctive drums and trumpets of the Algerian anthem Qassaman. Then, in quick succession, there is Mexico, Turkey, Brazil and Vietnam. Most of the rest of the South American anthems enter at this point, along with a couple of European anthems, and Libya.
There is a ‘bulge’ around the two-minute mark, when a handful of different anthems all start at around the same point (including most European and Asian anthems), and another around the two-and-a-half-minute point (mostly Sub-Saharan Africa). From here on, it gets pretty difficult to tease out details of any one anthem from the rest, and, well… it just gets messier after that. See if you can spot yours!
Political minutiae: the audio combines the national anthems of all 193 member states of the United Nations, plus Palestine and the Holy See/Vatican City (the two United Nations non-member observer states), and Taiwan (technically an applicant for UN membership). Apart from China and Taiwan, Israel, Cyprus, Armenia, North and South Korea, and the already-mentioned UN observer states, it does not include any anthems of states with limited recognition, or any anthems of the world’s wonderful micronations. It also does not include any historical anthems.
You know you want to listen to this just to hear what all of the world’s national anthems sound like squished together. It’s quite rousing and a bit easier to listen to than every Billy Joel greatest hit played at once.
