90 free National Anthem trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
National anthems are full of strange stories: a Dutch song older than the United States, a Japanese poem set to music by a British bandmaster, a Mexican poet locked in a bedroom by his fiancée until he produced lyrics, and a Spanish march that still has no official words. This national anthem trivia quiz covers the anthems of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, India, China, Russia, South Africa and more, plus the Olympic Hymn and the Anthem of Europe. Expect questions on who wrote them, when they became official, which ones share a melody, and the famous performances, protests and controversies attached to them. Easy questions ask which fort inspired The Star-Spangled Banner; hard ones ask which town the composers of the Welsh anthem lived in or which people's traditional tune became Kenya's anthem. It suits pub quiz rounds, geography and music classes, Olympic-watching parties, and anyone who has stood for an anthem and wondered where it came from. We deliberately ask about the songs rather than quoting their lyrics. Every answer was checked against the encyclopedia entry for the anthem in question, and each question links to its source.
30 of 90 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which country was the first to adopt an official national anthem, by decree in 1795?
France
La Marseillaise then lost its status under Napoleon and was banned by later kings before being reinstated for good in the 1870s.
Q 02Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner after watching the British bombard which fort?
McHenry
The poem was originally titled Defence of Fort M'Henry and describes the Battle of Baltimore in September 1814.
Q 03John Stafford Smith wrote The Star-Spangled Banner's tune for a gentlemen's club in which city?
London
The Anacreontic Society's song was already popular in America with various sets of words before Key's poem was attached to it.
Q 04Which US president signed the 1931 law making The Star-Spangled Banner the official national anthem?
Herbert Hoover
Congress passed the joint resolution on March 3, 1931, more than a century after the song was written.
Q 05How many stanzas does Francis Scott Key's original poem have?
Four
Only the first is normally performed, though the US Code makes all of them the official anthem.
Q 06The flag Francis Scott Key saw flying over the fort in 1814 had how many stars and stripes?
15 of each
Mary Pickersgill sewed it in her Baltimore home; the flag itself now hangs in the Smithsonian.
Q 07Besides Whitney Houston, which performer is the only one whose national anthem charted on the Hot 100?
José Feliciano
Feliciano's slow, bluesy 1968 World Series version caused a national uproar but opened the door for every interpretation since.
Q 08In his instrumental Star-Spangled Banner, Jimi Hendrix used distortion and the vibrato arm to imitate what?
Rockets and bombs
He played it regularly from 1968 until his death in 1970, most famously at Woodstock.
Q 09Roseanne Barr's notorious 1990 anthem performance took place before a home game of which baseball team?
San Diego Padres
The screeching rendition at Jack Murphy Stadium drew loud boos and a week of national outrage.
Q 10During which part of Game One of the 1918 World Series was the anthem famously played?
The seventh-inning stretch
Evidence shows it was actually performed as early as 1897 at Opening Day ceremonies in Philadelphia.
Q 11The British national anthem's melody is also the anthem of which small European country?
Liechtenstein
Its version is titled Oben am jungen Rhein; Switzerland used the tune too until 1961, and Americans know it as My Country, 'Tis of Thee.
Q 12The UK national anthem's author is unknown, but which composer has sometimes been credited?
John Bull
A 1619 keyboard piece by Bull has some similarities to the modern tune, and it may have begun life as a plainchant.
Q 13Beethoven wrote a set of seven piano variations on which national anthem?
God Save the King
Johann Christian Bach had already used the tune in a keyboard concerto around 1763, and Haydn was so impressed by it in London that he wrote Austria its own emperor's hymn.
Q 21Advance Australia Fair became the national anthem in 1984 under which prime minister?
Bob Hawke
A 1977 plebiscite had already shown Australians preferred it over Waltzing Matilda and God Save the Queen.
Q 22The lyrics of Japan's Kimigayo, the oldest of any national anthem, come from a poem of which form?
Waka
The unnamed poet wrote it in the Heian period (794–1185); it was not set to music until 1880.
Q 23In which year did Japan's Act on National Flag and Anthem officially recognize Kimigayo?
1999
Its use had been customary for more than a century; the law prompted fierce debate over what the word kimi meant.
Q 14Which song is used as England's anthem in cricket instead of the British national anthem?
Jerusalem
The Blake-and-Parry hymn is a rare exception; for most sports England simply uses God Save the King.
Q 15La Marseillaise was written in 1792 in which city?
Strasbourg
Its nickname came later, when volunteers from Marseille sang it while marching to Paris.
Q 16What was La Marseillaise originally titled?
War Song for the Army of the Rhine
Rouget de Lisle wrote it in a single evening after the mayor of Strasbourg asked for a song to rally soldiers.
Q 17Which restored Bourbon king banned La Marseillaise outright?
Louis XVIII
Charles X kept the ban; the anthem returned briefly after the July Revolution of 1830 and for good during the Franco-Prussian War.
Q 18O Canada was commissioned for the 1880 celebration of which holiday?
Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day
Calixa Lavallée wrote the music and Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier the French words; it was first performed at a banquet in Quebec City on June 24, 1880.
Q 19In which year did O Canada officially become Canada's national anthem?
1980
It had been the de facto anthem since 1939; the National Anthem Act took effect on July 1, 1980.
Q 20In which language were the lyrics of O Canada originally written?
French
The English words are not a translation; the French text has never changed, while the English has been revised three times, most recently in 2018.
Q 24A bandmaster from which country wrote the first, unpopular tune for Japan's anthem in 1869?
Britain
John William Fenton, stationed in Yokohama, noticed Japan had no anthem and suggested one; his tune was replaced in 1880.
Q 25The Wilhelmus, the oldest national anthem still in use, belongs to which country?
Netherlands
It was first attested during the siege of Haarlem in 1573, but was not officially adopted until 1932.
Q 26The first letters of the fifteen stanzas of the Wilhelmus form an acrostic spelling what?
Willem van Nassov
It works as a hidden signature for William of Orange, the leader of the Dutch revolt the song is written about.
Q 27India's Jana Gana Mana was written by Rabindranath Tagore in which language?
Bengali
It was first sung publicly at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in December 1911.
Q 28Rabindranath Tagore wrote the national anthems of India and which other country?
Bangladesh
Sri Lanka's anthem was written by his student Ananda Samarakoon, so his influence stretches to a third.
Q 29A formal rendition of India's national anthem takes approximately how many seconds?
52
A 20-second short version using only the first and last lines is also staged occasionally.
Q 30Haydn's melody for the German anthem was written in 1797 for the birthday of which Habsburg ruler?
Emperor Francis II
Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser served the Austrian Empire before Hoffmann von Fallersleben fitted new words to it in 1841.