In the UK we have “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will be Next” by Manic Street Preachers, a song about Welsh leftists who travelled to Spain to fight in the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War.
Of course that meaning is lost on most people and has been appropriated by people from the British National Party (a far right party in the UK) and antivaxxers
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Comedians van Kooten & de Bie predicted the kind of nationalist populism with a fascist tinge we’ve seen in recent years as satire with “de tegenpartij” ( the against party/ the otherside) and they had to kill the characters off because they actually got popular.
https://youtu.be/t9MxNVnj9BA
In Poland this will be “Mury” by Jacek Kaczmarski, itself a reinterpretation of “L’Estaca” by Lluis Llach. Became very popular as an anti-Communist protest song, totally losing the main sense of being alone against oppression (speaking of Polish lyrics, the original was a protest against Franco).
“Libre” (free), sung by Nino Bravo in Spain. 1972. It was taken by every conceivable political side that opposed an oppressive government in Spain and Hispanic-America.
>Free as the sun at dawn,
I am free, like the sea.
Free as a bird who escaped from its prison
and can finally fly.
Free as the wind which picks up my sorrow and my grief,
I keep walking for the truth
and I will finally know what is freedom
>Of course that meaning is lost on most people and has been appropriated by people from the British National Party (a far right party in the UK) and antivaxxers
This is news to me – I’d always assumed the meaning was reasonably well understood, but I guess it’s changed in recent years.
It’s [I am from Austria](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi_8DB7zsD4) by Reinhard Fendrich. Sort of a second national anthem of our country.
The lyrics are in Austrian dialect, only one chorus line (and the title) is in English.
People often use it as an overly patriotic song (even the far right used it during anti-vaccination rallies) but he actually sings about the many shortcomings of the country and then concludes *despite* all that I say with pride “I am from Austria”.
Perhaps hugely popular [“Suomen muotoisen pilven alla”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a22mUEFz5JU) – “Under the cloud shaped like Finland”, I wouldn’t call lyrics exactly patriotic, although I guess some may still found some optimism about them.
[Here](https://lyricstranslate.com/en/suomen-muotoisen-pilven-alla-under-cloud-shaped-finland.html) is the translation.
“Volare (Nel blu dipinto di blu)” is a famous italian song but sometimes happened that is used as italian hymn in olympics or other international events instead of our real hymn that is “Fratelli d’Italia”.
First thing to come to mind is Deutschland by Rammstein.
It‘s about the love-hate relationship the band has with the country, and about all the terrible things that happened in our past.
But because the chorus is „DEUTSCHLAND! MEIN HERZ IN FLAMMEN“ (Germany! My heart in flames), many people who don‘t listen to the rest assume it‘s a patriotic, nationalistic song.
The rolling R of Till Lindemann doesn‘t help.
Very true about the Manics. Strange how people can interpret it that way considering how vocal and blatant the Manics have been over the past 30 years about being Socialists 😂
Former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood got in some hot water for tweeting “If I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists” from the song around the time of the George Floyd protests. Then again her twitter comment section is a cesspit of right wing trolls and russian bots who take offence with literally anything she says