An English journalist has written in the Daily Mail that Wales will "achieve a devastating victory" against his country when the national anthems are played before Tuesday's crunch World Cup match.
Dominic Lawson — brother to celebrity chef Nigella — wrote that the Welsh football team and their fans in Qatar's Ahmad bin Ali stadium will belt out "an absolute stonker of a melody" for their anthem Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Land of My Fathers). The "dull" and "depressing" God Save The King, meanwhile, will leave the English feeling "anthem envy" and should be ditched, he argued.
Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau was composed in 1856 by James James, a harpist from Hollybush in Blackwood. It has been sung regularly at Welsh sporting events since 1905 when the New Zealand rugby team visited Cardiff Arms Park and Wales player Teddy Morgan responded to the All Blacks' haka by leading a powerful rendition of the anthem.
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Mr Lawson noted the Welsh anthem ranked second behind France's La Marseillaise in a league table of 'singability' drawn up by English and German musicologists, who calculated how likely unaffiliated listeners would be to spontaneously join in singing. God Save The Queen — as it was then — came in second to last place and Dr Alisun Pawley, one of the experts involved in the project, commented: "The tune is written in a way that doesn't invite high chest voice singing for most people's voices, and it lacks a real hook or climax where people feel compelled to join in or belt it out."
In his column Mr Lawson wrote: "You don't have to be a republican to regret the fact that what we call the national anthem does not celebrate the nation at all, but whoever happens to be the monarch — unlike Land of My Fathers, which celebrates Wales, its landscape, and its language. While the late Queen was alive, the British national anthem at least evoked the fervent wish on the part of most of her people that she remained healthy and on the throne. But it simply doesn't have that feeling now, after a gap of 70 years, that it is once again God Save The King."
The journalist continued: "A more suitable substitute national anthem is I Vow To Thee My Country, with its wonderful theme by Gustav Holst (which he originally used in his most popular work, The Planets suite, to evoke mighty Jupiter). Although it might be a little tricky for the King, as it was chosen by his first wife, Diana, for their wedding, and was sung at her funeral."
He added: "Shouldn't the English, like many other nations, have [an anthem] which sends tingles up the spines, not just of our own people, but of all those listening or watching, across the globe? In fact, does our national anthem even send tingles up the spines of more than a very small minority of the English? No. As so many of those YouGov responders, variously, told the pollster, our national anthem is 'dull', 'depressing', 'downbeat', 'a dirge'. Meanwhile, tomorrow evening, we English will watch the Welsh team and supporters thunder out 'Gwlad! Gwlad!' and know they are the winners, whatever the result of the match."
The Welsh anthem has attracted global attention during the World Cup, particularly when one fan in the crowd, Dwynwen Morgan, was captured by TV cameras singing with incredible passion before the match against the USA. Dwynwen, from Talybont in Ceredigion, told WalesOnline she was shocked by the online response. "I felt a few pings in my pocket during the match but was a bit shocked by the number of notifications and especially their locations," she said. "This means so much to every one of [the fans] so mine weren’t the only tears in the stadium."
Wales versus England will kick off on BBC One at 7pm on Tuesday. You can read our full interview with Dwynwen here.
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