Watch: Special moment Armenia fans film wonderful Welsh anthem
There are three things in life you can rely on – death, taxes and the Red Wall belting out a sublime version of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau.
While it wasn’t the scoreline or performance anyone wanted, Cymru being held to a 1-1 draw in Armenian capital, Yerevan, off the pitch it was yet another sublime version of the Welsh anthem that reverberated around the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium courtesy of the massed ranks of the Wales Away supporters.
We are all well aware of what a wonderful anthem we possess and word had obviously spread amongst the Armenian fans who were primed and ready with their phones to record a power-packed version of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau.
One of those filming was Tigran Grigoryan who posted on X (formerly Twiter) – “It was a pleasure listening to the Welsh fans proudly sing their anthem in Yerevan.”
As the final notes of the anthem drifted into the night time Yerevan sky, the Armenian fans burst into applause.
A nice touch on a night that many Welsh fans will largely like to forget, given automatic qualification for Euro 2024 is now out of the hands of Robert Page’s men.
It was a pleasure listening to the Welsh fans proudly sing their anthem in Yerevan. pic.twitter.com/Wzi607D3rj
— Tigran Grigoryan (@Tigartsakh) November 18, 2023
Post-match the Wales manager accepted that Wales’ Euro 2024 destiny might lie in the play-offs following the damaging draw with Armenia.
Wales needed a Nair Tiknizyan own goal on the stroke of half-time to give them a 1-1 draw in Yerevan, when Armenia were the most dangerous side for large parts of a low-quality contest.
Croatia are now favourites to take the second automatic qualifying spot behind Turkey, who travel to Cardiff for Wales’ last group fixture on Tuesday safe in the knowledge they will be playing in the finals in Germany next summer.
Having dropped points to remove automatic qualification from their own hands, manager Page said: “There’s a disappointed group in there, but we’ve got to pick ourselves up and finish on a high on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately it’s now out of our control. With a win, we’d all have been buzzing and looking forward to the game on Tuesday, and a win would have seen us qualify.
“It’s not materialised as we’d like, but that’s life and we have to get on with it.
“It’s about building momentum and, if it’s a play-off in March, it’s a play-off in March.
“If results go for us, we’ve still got an opportunity to qualify (automatically).
“We can only control what we can do, get the players in the right frame of mind, mentally and physically ready for Tuesday.”
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How is it that our anthem gets butchered every single time, with the fans, the players, and the “band” all at different tempos? Other countries don’t seem to suffer from this, so I’m perplexed.
I had thought the music usually plays too quickly, but this time the fans are clearly ahead.
It would sound so much better if everyone was singing from the same sheet.
There’s several things going on, here, I think.
Firstly, terrible PA systems in stadia making it difficult to hear the musical accompaniment. Secondly a wild variation of tempos employed and it being unknown in advance which one is going to be used. And lastly, unlike most sets of fans, the Red Wall likes to belt it out rather than mumbling along, thus drowning out the music and making it difficult to keep in time.
The (by now) home tradition of letting the crowd just get on with it solves all of these issues very nicely, I think.
Yes, ditch the band except for the intro. And dispense with putting a mic near the players who cannot sing, or don’t know the words. Let’s just hear the fans.