"" (; "God Bless Latvia!") is the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europea ...

of Latvia. Created in 1873 as a patriotic song, it did not gain official status until 1920.

History and composition

The music and lyrics were written in 1873 by

Kārlis Baumanis Kārlis Baumanis (11 May 1835 – 10 January 1905), better known as Baumaņu Kārlis, was an ethnic Latvian people, Latvian composer in the Russian Empire. He is the author of the lyrics and music of '' Dievs, svētī Latviju! '' (“God bless La ...

, a teacher who was part of the Young Latvian nationalist movement. It has been speculated that Baumanis may have borrowed part of the lyrics from a popular song that was sung to tune of "

God Save the Queen "God Save the King" is the national and/or royal anthem of the United Kingdom, most of the Commonwealth realms, their territories, and the British Crown Dependencies. The author of the tune is unknown and it may originate in plainchant, bu ...

", modified them and set them to music of his own. Baumanis's lyrics were different from the modern ones: he used the term "

Baltics The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...

" synonymously and interchangeably with "Latvia" and "Latvians", so "Latvia" was actually mentioned only at the beginning of the first verse. Later, the term "Latvia" was removed and replaced with "Baltics" to avoid a ban on the song. This has led to the misapprehension that the term "Latvia" was not part of the song until 1920, when it was chosen as national anthem, and the word "Baltics" was replaced with "Latvia". During the annexation of Latvia by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, the singing of "Dievs, svētī Latviju!" was banned. The Soviet republic of Latvia had its own anthem. "Dievs, svētī Latviju!" was restored as the state anthem of Latvia on 15 February 1990, a very short period before Latvian independence was restored on 4 May. The anthem's tune was modernized with a new F-major version that is used since 2014; formerly, a G-major version was used on LTV's sign-on and sign-offs daily from 2011 to 2013. However, the G-major version was still played on any occasion. The current version played on LTV for their sign-on and sign-offs daily is in the key of

B-flat major B-flat major is a major scale based on B, with pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative minor is G minor and its parallel minor is B-flat minor. The B-flat major scale is: : Many transposing ins ...

Lyrics

Other uses

Latvian

2 euro coin The 2 euro coin (€2) is the highest-value euro coin and has been used since the introduction of the euro (in its cash form) in 2002. The coin is used in 22 countries (with 20 legally adopting it) with a collective population of about 341 ...

s bear the inscription around the edge.

Notes

References

External links