Forty young children sang the Olympic Anthem in Greek during the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing on Friday 4 February 2022.
It took the little Chinese wonders just under three months to learn the Greek words and also understand them.
The Olympic Anthem a choral cantata written by opera composer Spyridon Samaras, with lyrics by Greek poet Kostis Palamas was assigned by the first President of the International Olympic Committee, Greece’s Demetrius Vikelas and was performed at the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.
Since that first revival of the Olympic Games, every hosting nation would commission its best musicians to write a special Olympic hymn for their own hosting of the games. It wasn’t until 1958 at the 54th Session of the IOC in Tokyo, Japan that the first anthem by Palamas and Samaras was declared the official Olympic Anthem by the International Olympic Committee. It has since been sang at every opening and closing ceremony.
I think China should host ALL the Olympics. They just had 40 children sing from memory the olympic anthem … a Capella …. IN GREEK pic.twitter.com/1l5YWChuuS
— Stuart (@StuartPoyser) February 4, 2022
Meanwhile, it is not the first time that Chinese nationals attempt to sing in Greek. Last year, in honour of the 200 year anniversary from the beginning of the Greek Revolution, professors and students of the International Studies University of Shanghai performed Dionysis Savvopoulos’ ‘As Kratisoun oi Horoi’ to celebrate Greece’s Independence.
Watch the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3rLtpA_MJk&t=1s
