On The Ground Newsletter: sent weekly by our foreign correspondents
Receive weekly dispatches from our foreign correspondents
Receive weekly international news delivery
Italy quietly revised its national anthem, removing the emphasis on the word “si!”. (Yes!) It had previously ended incendiary calls, government officials confirmed on Tuesday.
The subtle change, which has not been made public, follows an official directive issued by the Chief of Defense Staff in recent weeks, in line with a May executive order that referred to the national anthem’s original composition.
Prior to this adjustment, the national anthem “Fratelli d’Italia” (Brothers of Italy) ended with the lyrics “We are ready to die, we are ready to die, Italy has called! That’s right!”
News of the deletion of the word was first reported by the daily newspaper Il Fatt Quotidiano and later corroborated by sources within the Ministry of Defense and President Sergio Mattarella’s office.
A presidential official clarified that the amendment was not politically motivated, but was driven by a desire for “purity” aimed at removing additions to the original lyrics.
“Italian Brothers”, written by the poet Goffredo Mameli in 1847, before the unification of Italy, is also the name of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s political party. Although “Si” did not appear in Mameli’s original lyrics, the first musical score for the national anthem, composed by Michele Novarro that same year, included the word. A copy of the original lyrics and sheet music is available on the government’s official website.
