Top 100 Anthem Quotes

Roadrunner wanted to make Born in the Flood the next Nickelback, but I didn’t want to be that. I didn’t want to be a huge rock star playing songs I didn’t like. I didn’t want to be stuck playing ‘Anthem,’ the song everybody liked but I didn’t want to put on the record, for the next five years.

The Libertadores is sensational, but the Champions League… The first time I heard the anthem was a really special feeling. It’s like being in a video game; it’s living the dream of every child.

It’s crazy because ‘Icy Girl’ came when I was in a dark place, but I made it to motivate myself. It was kind of like my anthem for lifting up my spirits.

I got tired of seeing people rush through the national anthem so they could have their popcorn and get to the game. Nobody ever sang the anthem with soul. It was always done clinically and they always stuck to the original. I put feeling into it. I sang it in a soulful manner.

The Olympic Gold medal in 1968 was definitely the highest moment of my career. It was a dream come true. I was a 19-year-old boy, and it was just amazing to be standing on top of the podium and hearing the National Anthem in the background.

The beauty of all these years of singing the anthem is that I got a chance to meet athletes that I love, and there was a mutual respect.

The crudest thing I’ve done as a teacher was to require students to write a national anthem for their country and sing it themselves.

I loved the idea of how all these guys always are stealing other guys’ girls and I was like, ‘There’s no female anthem for a girl stealing another guy’s girl,’ and that is the coolest thing ever.

Lesley Gore’s part-time field was pop singer, and in her brief but urgent prime, she was the Queen of Teen Angst. She endured heartbreak as a birthday girl betrayed by her beau in ‘It’s My Party,’ savored revenge in the sequel ‘Judy’s Turn to Cry’ and belted the proto-feminist anthem ‘You Don’t Own Me.’

I’m a part of major league rugby. We had a league meeting to decide what to do with anthem protests, and even though I personally agree with what they say they are protesting as inequality and judicial system and incarceration rates among minorities, we decided all should stand and respect every national anthem.

I’m fiercely patriotic, and the flag and the anthem is something that I really, really respect.

I think we have to show respect for the nation and standing up for the anthem should not cause discomfort to citizens.

If someone says to me that ‘Horizon’ is an anti-feminist anthem, I have to tell them, ‘No, that’s not right.’ But I’m not interested in unpicking my music for people. Everybody has different reference points.

You will be pleased to know I stand obediently for the national anthem, though of course I would defend your right to remain seated should you so decide.

We legitimately walked into ‘Anthem’ head-on, not paying enough attention to internal band tension.

I thought, ‘Maybe if I become a cheerleader, I can meet managers or agents. Maybe I can sing the national anthem at a game, and someone in the industry will hear me.’ I saw everything as an opportunity to further my music. I was literally the cheerleader who had a mixtape in between her pom-poms at events.

I’m not a really religious person, but those moments onstage feel like some sort of religious experience because no one holds back, especially ‘Stay With Me’ when I finish the show. It kind of turns into an anthem when I perform it live, and it feels like there’s a lot of love in the room.

If you asked me to make a Gaslight Anthem album on my own, I would say, ‘No way, that’s crazy.’ I would never have been able to do that.

Kneeling for the anthem does nothing to advance solutions to racial injustice, police brutality, or any other social plight. It is a slap in the face to patriotism itself. It is a statement that America as a country is no longer worth standing for.

Like everyone else, I can barely take the waves of embarrassment that come with watching someone do something so badly. Roseanne Barr singing the national anthem, Sofia Coppola acting in ‘The Godfather: Part III,’ Sarah Palin talking about Russia – they all create the same level of eyeball-squinching discomfort.

There was that feeling of standing on the podium and listening to someone else’s national anthem that really sucked.

I think my patriotism is strong enough to not be offended when somebody takes a knee during the anthem. That’s not something I take personally.

There’s a time in everyone’s career where you go, ‘Ah, this is hard – how long am I going to have to do this?’ But the rewards are so great. Who gets to go on the podium and hear the national anthem? The whole nation singing! Money can’t buy you that.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized the element that sounds like The Gaslight Anthem that’s mine is always going to be me. The other three-fourths of it is going to be the other guys. I can’t stop doing what I do naturally, whether I’m in The Gaslight Anthem or my own thing.

I learned ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ the national anthem. I always wanted to play it before the Bulls game, but I always thought, like, Coach would be like, ‘You’re not focused on the game!’ So I never really asked.

When I’m dead, somebody can write my biography. I wrote a national hymn, an anthem, which I don’t want to present to that country. But I have a deal with my wife – when I’m dead, she should offer it, because then I’m safe.

If you forget the words to your own song, you can always claim artistic license. Forget the words to the national anthem, and you’re screwed.

The most scared I’d ever been was the first time I sang at a rugby match, Australia versus New Zealand, in front of one hundred thousand people. I had a panic attack the night before because people have been booed off and never worked again… just singing one song, the national anthem.

‘Spectrum’ is in part a disco song. But we play it hard, and it’s a real euphoric, wailing tune. It’s kind of like a total house anthem, in a way, but it seems to be going down really well. We’ve got all the grunge kids going mad for disco house raves.

I never got a chance to do Tom Waits or PJ Harvey kind of stuff in the Gaslight Anthem.

‘Southcliffe’ is an anthem to ordinary people’s ability to reinvent themselves in the face of ultimate darkness.

Most people have to learn the words to the National Anthem before they sing it. I learned these words when I was a child in elementary school, so this is something that’s been embedded in me ever since I was an adult.

I wrote my own anthem: it’s called ‘Mariah’s Theme.’ It’s on the ‘Rainbow’ album from ’99. Back in the day.

When I represent the Under-21s and sing the national anthem, there is no better feeling.

‘Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On’ was my anthem as a child. It was about me. I was Baby.

Some anthems are great for sports. You’ve got the Russian national anthem… ‘O Canada,’ how wonderful is that for hockey… but I chose the Italian national song because at my first World Cup, I saw the Italians play four times, and they won all four times – they won the championship.

I have no regrets, though I was the first artist to stylize the national anthem, and I got a lot of protests for it. I have no regrets. America has been good to me. I’m glad that I’m here.

For centuries in this country, black people were seen as three-fifths of a person. So when you hear the national anthem or you see an American flag as an African American person who has experienced the effects of that dehumanizing existence, it’s not going to mean the same.

‘American Idiot’ is not only one of my favorite albums of all time, it’s become an anthem of a generation.

‘Losing My Edge’ was an anthem for the aging music nerd, with lyrics detailing a comically epic list of historical dates, bands and attended gigs: the anti-hipster’s defence against ‘the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered Eighties.’

When Bill Clinton chose Al Gore in 1992 – from the same generational, ideological, and geographical background as his – it underscored his campaign’s central argument that this was a clash between the past and the future, that ‘Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow’ was indeed the campaign’s anthem.

‘Free Fallin’ is a very good song. Maybe it would be one of my favorites if it hadn’t become this huge anthem. But I’m grateful that people like it.

Saying Kaepernick is a distraction is based largely on opinion. You could say his decision to kneel for the national anthem was detrimental to the team. If that is so, I would hope you’d note that Kaepernick’s teammates gave him the Len Eshmont Award at the end of the season.

We’ve been doing work outside of the anthem since the beginning. Before the anthem even started, players were involved in these types of social justice issues. The anthem protests or demonstrations just brought eyes and attention to it.

I personally think our national anthem is not patriotic enough. There is another poem by Dwijendralal Ray called ‘Dhono Dhanne Pushpe Bhora,’ which is more soul-stirring as a national anthem.

I had a gig in Sweden. There were thousands of people there, and when I launched into ‘I’m Yours,’ they were all singing along. It was as if I was singing the Swedish national anthem. I was stunned.