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Yea, another thing...the Olympic Anthem. Avoid another Torino idea with this one as well, don't just play the anthem but rather SING it. It's the Olympic anthem for crying out loud, not an after thought. It's a beautiful hymn as well....as long as they sing it in Greek (the English version at SLC was catastrophic).

Perhaps they could use the Olympic Anthem score from Montreal and Calgary?

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O Canada in Calgary...The singer was not that good and while having it performed in an aboriginal tongue was an interesting tribute, looking at the crowd, it lost engagement from the audience. They had that "do I sing along? and how?" look on their faces.

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Yea, another thing...the Olympic Anthem. Avoid another Torino idea with this one as well, don't just play the anthem but rather SING it. It's the Olympic anthem for crying out loud, not an after thought. It's a beautiful hymn as well....as long as they sing it in Greek (the English version at SLC was catastrophic).

Perhaps they could use the Olympic Anthem score from Montreal and Calgary?

And I hope the people have to stand up again during the olympic hymn, like in Beijing.

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I saw a video of the Montreal opening ceremony.

There they only used the melody of the national anthem, there was no choir or singer. Could be a solution, but maybe a boring one.

But what about the parade of athletes?

I think the time where national anthems were played at Olympic ceremonies without a choir or at least a single singer is long ago. The last time they did that was in Nagano.

I expect the parade of athletes to be in the English order of alphabet, since it's the main language of the host region. But the placards could show the English as well as the French name of the respective country. In Calgary, however, the placards showed only the English name.

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Yea, another thing...the Olympic Anthem. Avoid another Torino idea with this one as well, don't just play the anthem but rather SING it. It's the Olympic anthem for crying out loud, not an after thought. It's a beautiful hymn as well....as long as they sing it in Greek (the English version at SLC was catastrophic).

Perhaps they could use the Olympic Anthem score from Montreal and Calgary?

I somehow like well-orchestrated instrumental renditions of the Olympic Anthem better than those which are sung. But the problem with the instrumental rendition in Torino was that it was abbreviated (shame on them!) and not even a new version but a version from 1958 (double shame!) which one could find on the IOC website until a couple of years ago (triple shame!). It was simply loveless -- as if the organisers thought that it's only their bloody duty to play the anthem during the hoisting of the Olympic Flag and quickly downloaded the anthem from the IOC website just to fulfill that duty.

But how magnificent and rousing an instrumental Olympic Anthem can be was shown, in my opinion, by the rendition of the Olympic Anthem they used in Munich. It clearly differs from the original anthem, but it's a very nice version with pleasant orchestration nevertheless. If one asked me in which fashion the Olympic Anthem should be performed, I would always pick this version:

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One of the best music/sung renditions of the Olympic anthem is the one at the Athens closing ceremony:

Of course, the opening version was awesome as well.

Singing it is highly preferable for me. There's a sense of "might" when it is sung.

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/\ Of course the great Placido was lip-synching that one. I know he did it in Spanish and English for the first 2x. Couldn't decipher his final go-around if it was in Catalan or Greek; but I suspect the chorus answered in Greek.

My God, 16 kids to walk out the flag-- that's a record!! I hope Vancouver will have the mascots walk out the flag!!

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One of the best music/sung renditions of the Olympic anthem is the one at the Athens closing ceremony:

Of course, the opening version was awesome as well.

Singing it is highly preferable for me. There's a sense of "might" when it is sung.

Singing is OK for me as long as the anthem has its instrumental introduction (which is one of the best pieces of the whole anthem) and an instrumental accompaniment. That's why I didn't like the a cappella version at both Beijing ceremonies. A cappella takes away the "passion" from the anthem.

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They always had to stand up for the Olympic Anthem, in every opening and closing ceremony I've seen so far.

Yesterday searched for videos from that part of the opening ceremonies (1992- 2008). They actual only asked to stand up during the Atlanta 1996 and Beijing ceremony. But some people stood up during the other ceremonies, some people remained sitting.

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Doesn't the announcer ask people to "please be upstanding for the Olympic anthem"?

In Calgary 1988 they also asked to stand up for the entrance of the olympic flag I just saw.

And also suring the Seoul 1988 opening ceremony, Nagano 1998 closing ceremony.

And I hope soldiers will be involved for raising the flag.

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Yesterday searched for videos from that part of the opening ceremonies (1992- 2008). They actual only asked to stand up during the Atlanta 1996 and Beijing ceremony. But some people stood up during the other ceremonies, some people remained sitting.

Well, but they always make at least the announcement "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Olympic Anthem" -- which should mean for every only semi-educated person that it's time to stand up whenever an anthem is played.

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/\ But there is a difference between the anthems of sovereign nations AND that of the IOC, a self-styled, self-appointing organization that does NOT rule over any sovereign territory and is, to a point, almost a mythical organization. I don't really see why people should have to stand UP for a sports organization that is a legend in its own mind.

I mean it would be a nice gesture which, again, aggrandizes the value of their organization in its members' eyes, but there is NO legal or imperative ground for anyone to stand for the "Olympic" athem.

I mean in the Paralympics, they certainly don't expect everyone to stand for the anthems or the Paralympic anthem :blink: ...why should it be the same for able-bodied people who owe NO allegiance to the IOC??

Edited by baron-pierreIV
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I agree 100%. Nice to stand, I would stand, not obligated by international protocol.

Does anyone know: do IOC members stand for the anthem at IOC meetings?

/\ But there is a difference between the anthems of sovereign nations AND that of the IOC, a self-styled, self-appointing organization that does NOT rule over any sovereign territory
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Are there even legal or imperative grounds to stand up for national anthems? Maybe in the USA or in several other countries, but as far as I know there's no such law in Germany for our anthem. So it's simply a matter of respect to stand up for it, too.

And I agree with Kendegra: The Olympic Anthem is not the anthem of a small body of 130 sports functionaries but a movement of 205 National Olympic Committees with thousands of professional and millions of amateur athletes. It is furthermore the anthem of a 115-year-old tradition rooted in an almost 3,000-year-old tradition. And if that anthem is played at the place were it belongs, namely at the Olympic Games, it should really be self-evident to stand up -- even if you wouldn't do it at occasions outside the Olympic Games or IOC sessions.

Again, of course there are no legal or imperative grounds to do so. But it should equally be a matter of respect as for the national anthems.

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It's a rule of customary law to stand up for a national anthem and raising of a flag. It's not obligatory, just like it's not obligatory to flying the flag at half-mast when the head of state of another state is death. But rules of customary law are recommended, and indeed every well-educated person knows that kind of rules, just to be polite. And it's also a rule of customary law to stand up when a head of state is arriving.

It's true that the Olympic Hymn (or Olympic anthem) is not an anthem of a sovereign state. But also international organisations, like the UN, EU and the AU do have anthems. Also for this kind of organisations during the raising of a flag and the playing of the anthem it's polite to stand up.

I don't know if IOC members stand up during the playing of the Olympic anthem at IOC sessions for example. I never saw opening ceremonies of IOC sessions. I only know the playing of the Olympic anthem before the announcement of the host city, and at that moment all IOC members already stand behind the IOC president, so there's no difference between the playing of the anthem en the whole of the announcement ceremony. I don't know what the other people in the room do during the playing of the anthem, I am now not abled to see that video. I know the last day of the IOC session the IOC members had to stand up during the oath taking ceremony of the new IOC members.

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As of tomorrow, VANOC will have the keys to BC Place and will be able to do whatever it wants with it. The stadium will be handed over to VANOC tomorrow, and the next time the public will be inside the stadium is at the opening ceremony.

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