Spain are the reigning World Champions and have some of the best players in the world.
With those factors in mind, you can expect the atmosphere to be electric when Spain return to major tournament football on 3 July, 2025.
The Spanish face Iberian neighbours Portugal in Bern, Switzerland – but when the pre-game national anthem rolls around, they won’t be singing. But don’t worry they haven’t forgotten the words simultaneously. Here’s why…
Spain’s national anthem explained
Spain’s national anthem is called the Marcha Real (‘Real March’), no one knows exactly when it first created – leaving it as one of the oldest national anthems in the world.
It is originated at least 264 years ago, with the music first printed back in 1761. It was formally declared as Spain’s national anthem during the reign of Isabella II (1833-68) and remains so to this day.
As the name would suggest, it has military connections – and is also known by some as ‘The Grenadier March.’
At various points in the song’s history, lyrics have been added, but have never stayed permanently.
One version was used during Alfonso XIII's, with one of the lines, “long live Spain! The cry of the fatherland.”
During General Franco’s dictatorship between 1936 and 1975 lyrics were again briefly added but didn’t stick after his reign ended.
Will we ever see lyrics added to the Spanish National Anthem?
It is unlikely that a set of lyrics can be written that will prove equally acceptable to the country’s diverse population of Castilian Spaniards, Catalans, Basques.
Madrid’s ultimately unsuccessful bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games did briefly lead to a national contest to see if lyrics could be added.
In the end the winning lyrics received widespread criticism, and they were pulled only days after the winning entrant was selected.
So it doesn’t look like Spain’s national anthem will have lyrics any time soon.
But at least they aren’t the only country who are left unable to sing along to their anthem.
The Bosnia, Kosovo and San Marino songs also all don’t have lyrics.
