The summer of 2024 promises to be a good one for sporting fans, with a jam-packed sporting schedule across the next few months. From the Paris Olympics and Wimbledon to the jewel in European football’s crown – the 2024 European Football Championships.
There’s a lot to get excited about and from a marketing perspective, this means a lot of marketing activity to coincide with the events, with huge audiences to connect with globally.
At Propellernet, we know a thing or two about audience insights, however with football fever sweeping across the office, our digital PR team has decided to turn their hands to a new form of audience analysis, by finding out which nation sings their national anthem the best.
We’ve previously discovered which beaches have the bluest waters using colour analysis for CV Villas and the most beautiful sounding names according to phonetics for My 1st Years, but with football dominating summer 2024, we wondered whether we could analyse how ‘pitch perfect’ football fans were.
As any football fan will know, singing from the stands plays a huge part of what it means to be a supporter, and your nation’s national anthem is often the pinnacle of that, with each international game being preceded by each set of fans belting out their anthem from the stands.
So… did we find out which European footballing fan base is the best at singing their national anthem? Of course we did. Whether it’s a large creative event, new product or data piece like this one, it all starts with an idea, and then working out how we can make it happen – and nothing is ever impossible for our PR team!
Which Countries Are Best At Singing Their National Anthem?
To discover the European football fan bases that best perform their national anthem, our team used Chordify to document the official anthem of each nation, as well as its duration and key it is written in. We then used recent pre-match YouTube videos of football fans singing each anthem and used Singscope to measure the pitch they were singing in, whilst also timing how long they sang in the correct key. This allowed us to calculate which fans sang in key for the largest percentage of their nation’s official anthem.
In what might be a surprise to many, England fans claim the prize as the strongest singers, as they often manage to maintain the G major key for almost 80% of ‘God Save The King’ – much higher than most other competing nations. But will that be enough to spur Southgate’s side on to success?
There’s also some good news for Welsh football fans, as while their nation didn’t qualify for Euro 2024, their supporters put on a good performance, singing their anthem ‘Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau,’ in key for 73% of the song. Translating to ‘Land of My Fathers,’ it is actually thought to be the first national anthem to be sung at the start of a sporting event. Being said to have all started with the Welsh team leading the crowd to sing the anthem in response to New Zealand’s haka.
Scotland fans also earn their place among the nations who best perform their national anthem, as Scottish fans belted out ‘Flower of Scotland’ in E-flat major 51% of the time. Other nations set to spur their teams on with almost pitch perfect renditions of their national anthems include French fans with ‘La Marseillaise’, and Italian fans with ‘Il Canto degli Italiani’ who are looking to inspire their team to back-to-back European trophies.
The European Fans That Perform Their National Anthems The Best
| Rank | Country | National Anthem Name | Anthem Duration | Time Sang In Key | In Tune (%) |
| 1 | England | God Save The King | 00:54 | 00:43 | 79.6 |
| 2 | Northern Ireland | God Save The King | 00:54 | 00:40 | 74.1 |
| 3 | Wales | Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau | 01:40 | 01:13 | 73.0 |
| 4 | Republic of Ireland | Amhrán na bhFiann | 01:13 | 00:46 | 63.0 |
| 5 | France | La Marseillaise | 01:01 | 00:37 | 60.7 |
| 6 | Finland | Maamme | 00:55 | 00:33 | 60.0 |
| 7 | Denmark | Der er et Yndigt Land | 01:12 | 00:42 | 58.3 |
| 8 | Bulgaria | Mila Rodino | 01:00 | 00:33 | 55.0 |
| 9 | Italy | Il Canto degli Italiani | 01:40 | 00:51 | 51.0 |
| 10 | Scotland | Flower of Scotland | 01:40 | 00:51 | 51.0 |
| 11 | Germany | Deutschlandlied | 01:28 | 00:44 | 50.0 |
| 12 | Romania | Deșteaptă-Te, Române! | 01:20 | 00:39 | 48.8 |
| 13 | Portugal | A Portuguesa | 01:40 | 00:45 | 45.0 |
| 14 | Andorra | El gran Carlemany | 02:01 | 00:45 | 37.2 |
| 15 | Azerbaijan | Azərbaycan Marşı | 01:48 | 00:39 | 36.1 |
| 16 | Belgium | La Brabançonne | 00:45 | 00:16 | 35.6 |
| 17 | Croatia | Lijepa Naša Domovino | 01:28 | 00:30 | 34.1 |
| 18 | Cyprus | Hymn to Liberty | 00:49 | 00:16 | 32.7 |
| 19 | Lithuania | Tautiška Giesmė | 01:32 | 00:29 | 31.5 |
| 20 | Gibraltar | Gibraltar Anthem | 01:04 | 00:20 | 31.3 |
| 21 | Greece | Hymn to Liberty | 00:45 | 00:14 | 31.1 |
| 22 | Austria | Land der Berge, Land am Strome | 01:14 | 00:23 | 31.1 |
| 23 | Montenegro | Oj, Svijetla Majska Zoro | 02:06 | 00:38 | 30.2 |
| 24 | Norway | Ja, Vi Elsker Dette Landet | 01:03 | 00:19 | 30.2 |
| 25 | Sweden | Du Gamla, Du Fria | 01:37 | 00:29 | 29.9 |
Which Countries Are The Worst At Singing Their National Anthem?
As with any story with a ranking, there is always the other side of the data, and we were therefore able to discover which fans need a bit more practice when it comes to singing their anthems. Maybe it’s the passion or the difficulty of the anthem itself, but either way, Serbian fans seem to struggle to stay in key when singing their anthem ‘Bože Pravde’ – being able to stay in key for just 13% of the song. In fact, Serbia fans tend to project their anthem in A-flat major, as opposed to the B-flat major that the song is composed in.
It’s a similar issue for Maltese football fans, as they often sing L-Inny Malti in perfect pitch for only 14% of the time.
Despite what is often a star-studded squad, The Netherlands have struggled to perform on the international stage in recent years, and it seems its the same story in the stands, with their fans completing the top 10 list, maintaining the correct pitch for just over one-fifth (21%) of the entire song.
10 Countries Worst At Performing Their National Anthem
| Rank | Country | National Anthem Name | Anthem Duration | Time Sang In Key | In Tune (%) |
| 1 | Serbia | Bože Pravde | 01:24 | 00:11 | 13.1 |
| 2 | Malta | L-Innu Malti | 01:21 | 00:11 | 13.6 |
| 3 | Ukraine | Shche ne Vmerla Ukraina | 01:11 | 00:10 | 14.1 |
| 4 | Turkey | İstiklal Marşı | 01:06 | 00:11 | 16.7 |
| 5 | Iceland | Lofsöngur | 01:40 | 00:17 | 17.0 |
| 6 | Slovakia | Nad Tatrou Sa Blýska | 01:37 | 00:17 | 17.5 |
| 7 | Switzerland | Schweizerpsalm | 01:03 | 00:12 | 19.0 |
| 8 | Armenia | Mer Hayrenik | 01:49 | 00:22 | 20.2 |
| 9 | Poland | Dąbrowski’s Mazurka | 01:34 | 00:19 | 20.2 |
| 10 | Netherlands | Wilhelmus van Nassouwe | 01:02 | 00:13 | 21.0 |
While this was just a bit of fun that enabled our digital PR team to explore ways of analysing sound, our work for clients gains tangible results. If you’re interested in finding out more about what we could do for your business, check out our work here or get in touch. We secure coverage and links for our clients globally. Find out more about our international digital PR capabilities.
Methodology
- To source all the football teams able to qualify for the UEFA European Football Championships, we sourced them directly from the official UEFA website: https://www.uefa.com/euro2024/teams/
- Using Chordify we documented the national anthem of each nation, the duration of the anthem and the key it is written in.
- We then sourced YouTube clips of fans singing the national anthem for each competing nation, from recent (2023/24) match days. Note: National anthems with no lyrics were discounted from the study.
- To measure the key football fans sang in, we used pinch-analysis tool Singscope. Using a stopwatch, the researchers noted for what duration of the anthem the fans sang in tune. This was repeated for all of the competing nations.
- The results were converted into percentages to reveal the times that sang in tune for the longest. The results were sorted from highest to lowest, with those who sang in key for the longest duration being crowned the most pitch-perfect nation.