"March On, Bahamaland" 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 European ...
of
The Bahamas
The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...
. Timothy Gibson composed the music and authored the lyrics. It was adopted as the national anthem in 1973, when the country gained independence from the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
History
The Bahamas became a
crown colony
A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony governed by Kingdom of England, England, and then Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain or the United Kingdom within the English overseas possessions, English and later British Empire. There was usua ...
within the
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
in 1717. Internal autonomy was eventually granted to the islands in 1964. Negotiations on independence commenced eight years later, when the
Progressive Liberal Party
The Progressive Liberal Party (abbreviated PLP) is a populist and social liberal party in the Bahamas. Philip Davis is the leader of the party.
History
The PLP was founded in 1953 by William Cartwright, Cyril Stevenson, and Henry Milton ...
emerged victorious in the
1972 elections after campaigning in favour of sovereignty.
Consequently, a contest was held to determine a composition for a forthcoming national anthem.
In the end, lyrics and music written by Timothy Gibson were selected.
[ Gibson was a school music teacher and also wrote the music to the country's national song, " God Bless Our Sunny Clime", together with E. Clement Bethel. The song was officially adopted in 1973, the year the country gained independence.]Commonwealth realm
A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state in the Commonwealth of Nations that has the same constitutional monarch and head of state as the other realms. The current monarch is King Charles III. Except for the United Kingdom, in each of the re ...
after independence, "God Save the Queen" was retained as the country's royal anthem.[ That anthem was twice played by mistake at the ]1982 Commonwealth Games
The 1982 Commonwealth Games were held in Brisbane, Australia, from 30 September to 9 October 1982. The Opening Ceremony was held at the QEII Stadium (named after Elizabeth II), in the Brisbane suburb of Nathan. The QEII Stadium was also the ...
medal ceremony,podium
A podium (: podiums or podia) is a platform used to raise something to a short distance above its surroundings. In architecture a building can rest on a large podium. Podiums can also be used to raise people, for instance the conductor of a ...
on each occasion and expressed her wish that "March On, Bahamaland" be played. The officials realized that they did not have a recording of that song, so the Bahamian delegation sang their anthem themselves.
Lyrics
Source:
References
External links
Audio of "March On, Bahamaland", with information and lyricsarchive link
"March On, Bahamaland" MIDI
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Bahamian songs
March music
National anthems
National symbols of the Bahamas
North American anthems
Year of song unknown