linguistic:paraphrasing
Creators

Most of the best-known national anthems were written by little-known or unknown composers such as Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, composer of " La Marseillaise " and John Stafford Smith who wrote the tune for " The Anacreontic Song ", which became the tune for the U.S. national anthem, " The Star-Spangled Banner ". The author of "God Save the King", one of the oldest and best-known anthems in the world, is unknown and disputed.

Very few countries have a national anthem written by a world-renowned composer. Exceptions include Germany, whose anthem " Das Lied der Deutschen " uses a melody written by Joseph Haydn, and Austria, whose national anthem " Land der Berge, Land am Strome " is sometimes credited to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The music of the " Pontifical Anthem ", anthem of the Vatican City, was composed in 1869 by Charles Gounod, for the golden jubilee of Pope Pius IX 's priestly ordination. When Armenia was under Soviet rule, its anthem, the " Anthem of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic " used a melody by Aram Khachaturian.

The committee charged with choosing a national anthem for the Federation of Malaya (later Malaysia) at independence decided to invite selected composers of international repute to submit compositions for consideration, including Benjamin Britten, William Walton, Gian Carlo Menotti and Zubir Said, who later composed " Majulah Singapura ", the national anthem of Singapore. None were deemed suitable. The tune eventually selected was (and still is) the anthem of the constituent state of Perak, which was in turn adopted from a popular French melody titled "La Rosalie" composed by the lyricist Pierre-Jean de Béranger.

A few anthems have words by Nobel laureates in literature. The first Asian laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, wrote the words and music of " Jana Gana Mana " and " Amar Shonar Bangla ", later adopted as the national anthems of India and Bangladesh respectively. Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson wrote the lyrics for the Norwegian national anthem " Ja, vi elsker dette landet ".

Other countries had their anthems composed by locally important people. This is the case for Colombia, whose anthem's lyrics were written by former president and poet Rafael Nuñez, who also wrote the country's first constitution, and in Malta, written by Dun Karm Psaila, already a National Poet. A similar case is Liberia, the national anthem of which was written by its third president, Daniel Bashiel Warner.