English National Anthem

A National Anthem for England ? « www ... - English Passport

England has no official national anthem of its own; generally the United Kingdom and Commonwealth anthem, “God Save the Queen”, is used.

There have been calls for a unique national anthem to be adopted for England specifically.

Current anthems used in sport

At present, the following anthems are used:

Multi-sport events

At the Commonwealth Games, Team England uses “Jerusalem” as the victory anthem from 2010 onwards. The Commonwealth Games Council for England conducted a poll of members of the public on St George’s Day, April 23 2010, which decided the anthem for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The three options were “God Save The Queen”, “Jerusalem” and “Land of Hope and Glory”. Jerusalem was the clear winner with 52% of the vote.

At international Lacrosse matches, the England Men’s team uses “God Save The Queen” and the Women’s team uses “Jerusalem” as the national anthems.

Proposed anthems

On 20 April 2007, Greg Mulholland, the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds North West, introduced an Early Day Motion (EDM) in the House of Commons, proposing that England have its own national anthem. The EDM called for all English sporting associations to “adopt an appropriate song that English sportsmen and women, and the English public, would favour when competing as England.” There has also been an EDM calling for “Jerusalem” to be given official status as the national anthem of England, proposed by Daniel Kawczynski, the Conservative Party MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham on 18 October 2006.

In April 2008 Greg Mulholland called for the England national rugby league team to replace “God Save the Queen” with an English national anthem at the Rugby League World Cup (RL World Cup) to be held in Australia in autumn 2008 and on 28 April he put forward another EDM in the House of Commons, noting that Scotland and Wales who are also taking part in the RL World Cup, will all have their own national anthems, and therefore calling on England to use an English national anthem rather than the British national anthem, with the proposal that English rugby league fans should be given the chance to choose an English anthem. However, God Save the Queen was used.

The English Democrats, England’s largest political party, has long campaigned for Jerusalem to be adopted as the official National Anthem of England, and to maintain “God Save the Queen” for British occasions.

The making of English national identity

Dwight's journal of music

Art and life

Universal dictionary of the English language, a new and original work presenting for convenient reference the orthography, pronunciation, meaning, use, origin and development of every word in the English language ...

England