Earth anthem

An Earth anthem is a celebratory song or a musical composition that eulogizes, extols or exalts planet Earth.

"Voices for Today" is a song composed by Benjamin Britten in 1965 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the foundation of the United Nations. The lyrics are based on Virgil’s fourth Eclogue.^[1][2][3]

On the request of then United Nations Secretary-General U Thant, a "Hymn to the United Nations" was performed on the occasion of its 26th anniversary, on October 24, 1971, by Pablo Casals, the lyrics to which were penned by the poet W. H. Auden.^[4][5]

In January 2014, Abhay K. of the United Nations Permanent Delegation of India cited a need for a global anthem.^[6] While UNESCO's assistant director general Éric Falt agreed it was necessary but claimed UNESCO "lack[ed the] resources to organize an online global competition to select an Earth Anthem".^[6]

There are a number of songs or a musical composition that eulogizes, extols or exalts the planet Earth.

In 1968, The Turtles released "Earth Anthem" on their fourth studio album, The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands. In 2003, Dan Fogelberg covered this as the last song of his album, Full Circle.^[7][8]

"Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)" by Neil Young, "Earth Song" by Michael Jackson,^[9] "Earth" by Lil Dicky, and "Earth Anthem" by Abhay Kumar are other examples of popular music with Earth as a theme.^[10][11]

In 1990, lyricist Barbara Lee George first performed the "Earth Day Anthem" with the Children’s Chorus of Sussex County,^[12] sung to the tune of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy".^[13][14][15] New York state congressman Benjamin Gilman recommended that the United States adopt it as the official Earth anthem. It was nominated for a Marcus Nobel United Earth Prize in 1992.^[12] George's song was first recorded in 2015 in collaboration with guitarist Al Orlo, producer John Lissauer, and singer Vaneese Thomas among others.^[12]

In November of 2010, the UFO religion Universe People's website published an instrumental "New Earth Anthem".^[16]

In 2012, Andrew Huang wrote a pop song titled "When The Lights Go Down" for WWF-Canada as a Earth Hour anthem, containing lyrics such as "Protecting the Earth is our message".^[17][18]

The world music ensemble Libana has recorded multiple songs dedicated to the Earth. Recorded in 1986, "Ancient Mother" and "The Earth is Our Mother" chants were part of Songs of the Sacred Wheel.^{[19][20][21][22]} Their 2024 single, "Gaia Now", addresses the effects of climate change with lyrics such as "Wake up now, the Earth is flooding, rise up and protect her / Cry about your mama, she's our home, she is our mother".^[23]

In 1996, Denver composer John Guillot was working on a compilation CD of national anthems when he "conceived of a single piece of music based on the common notes and tendencies of all of the world’s national anthems".^[24] It was not meant to replace any anthem but rather to "bring its message of peace and understanding across national borderlines".^[24]

In 2000, Guillot worked with professor David Cope at the University of California, Santa Cruz, whose artificial musical intelligence program Experiments in Musical Intelligence (EMI) was able to generate a conglomeration of songs based on commonalities in lyrics and sheet music (such as phrases, notes, and melodies). Using files created by composer Stephen Bigger, "Guillot and Cope entered the [national anthems] into the program and the result was the words and music of 'The World Anthem'", which was completed by the year 2000.^[24] The Tommy E. Short Charitable Foundation provided a grant of an unknown sum to create an international recording.^[24] The music was recorded by an orchestra in Prague with vocals from Los Angeles.^[24]

The recording was first publicly heard at the Denver Millennium Celebration on Dec. 31, 2000, "at the stroke of midnight" in conjunction with New Years' Eve fireworks.^[25]

The first live performance was in November 2001, by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.^[24][25]

In 2001, it was performed in the 40th anniversary celebration of the Peace Corps in Washington D.C.^[24]

Circa 2002, the "World Anthem" was published by the Mindshare Institute and Foundation and used by the Praxis Peace Institute in Croatia.^[24][26] The same year, it was performed in the Poudre High School commencement and graduation at Moby Arena at CSU. There, it was met with some criticism, such as by radio commentators Mike Rosen and Peter Boyles, as well as letters to the editors of CSU publications. Opponents, who were usually parents of the students, claimed they were "offended" the American national anthem was not played instead.^[26][25]

The music video was uploaded to YouTube in 2007.^[27] The MindShare Institute of Fort Collins hired producer Brian Doubleday to contact more than 200 photographers around the world to contribute "faces of humanity" for the video.^[24]

In 2006, the United States Air Force Academy Band published its performance of the "World Anthem",^[28] conducted by Philip Chevallard and arranged by Joseph T. Spaniola.^[29][30]

• Anthems of international organizations
• Flag of Earth
• Global citizenship
• Olympic Hymn
• "We Are the World"