Uploaded October 2016 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Washington, My Home is the state song of Washington, in the United States. Written by Helen Davis and arranged by Stuart Churchill, it was adopted on March 19, 1959.
There is a popular myth in Washington state that the state song is actually Louie, Louie by the Fabulous Wailers. There was indeed a failed effort to change the state song to "Louie, Louie" in the 1980s, spearheaded by KING-TV comedy-show Almost Live! host Ross Shafer. However, then-governor Booth Gardner proclaimed one day in that timeframe to be the state's official "Louie, Louie Day".
Washington, My Home is the state song of Washington, in the United States. Written by Helen Davis and arranged by Stuart Churchill, it was adopted on March 19, 1959.
There is a popular myth in Washington state that the state song is actually Louie, Louie by the Fabulous Wailers. There was indeed a failed effort to change the state song to "Louie, Louie" in the 1980s, spearheaded by KING-TV comedy-show Almost Live! host Ross Shafer. However, then-governor Booth Gardner proclaimed one day in that timeframe to be the state's official "Louie, Louie Day".
![National Anthem: Ireland - Amhrán na bhFiann [New Version]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/s_hmooJ-6eo/mqdefault.jpg "National Anthem: Ireland - Amhrán na bhFiann [New Version]
A Soldiers Song was composed in 1907, with words by Peadar Kearney and music by Kearney and Patrick Heeney. The first draft, handwritten on copybook paper, sold at auction in Dublin in 2006 for €760,000. The text was first published in Irish Freedom by Bulmer Hobson in 1912. It was used as marching song by the Irish Volunteers and was sung by rebels in the General Post Office (GPO) during the Easter Rising of 1916. Its popularity increased among rebels held in Frongoch internment camp after the Rising, and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the Irish War of Independence (1919–21). After the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, a large proportion of the IRAs men and apparatus became the National Army. The Soldiers Song remained popular as an Army tune, and was played at many military functions.")
![National Anthem: Iceland - Lofsöngur [NEW VERSION]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/t1DvLI1UH6s/mqdefault.jpg "National Anthem: Iceland - Lofsöngur [NEW VERSION]
Much like the United States anthem, the Icelandic national anthem was originally written for a particular occasion and it probably did not occur to either the poet or the composer that the song was destined to become a national anthem.
In Iceland, nation-wide celebrations were held throughout 1874 to mark the 1000th anniversary of the first Norse settlement of the island. (This is the “Iceland’s thousand years” that are referenced in the anthem.) To mark the occassion, the Bishop of Iceland decreed that church services on August 2 of that year were to be held based on the anniversary, and the text to be presented was Psalm 90. The Rev. Matthías Jochumsson then decided to write a poem based on the Biblical text and the millennial anniversary. While abroad in Edinburgh, Scotland, he met up with Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson, who Jochumsson asked to compose music for his poem.")
