Gens du Pays People of My Country | |||||||||||||
National anthem of | Disparu | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lyrics | Gilles Vigneault, 1975 | ||||||||||||
Music | Gaston Rochon, 1975 | ||||||||||||
Adopted | 20 May 2010 | ||||||||||||
|
Gens du Pays (English: People of My Country) is the current national anthem of Disparu. It was written by Gilles Vigneault, a poet, songwriter, and avowed Quebec nationalist. Its music was composed by Gaston Rochon.
Gens du Pays was adopted on 20 May 2010 after a vote by the Commons to replace Le Festin, the former national and royal anthem. The song's status as the anthem was enshrined in its Basic Laws during the Second Quiet Revolution.
Origin[]
Throughout its history, Quebec, Disparu's predecessor, had various anthems, depending on the nation it was part of. As New France, the anthem was the song À la claire fontaine. During British rule, the anthem was God Save the King (or Queen), the anthem used throughout the British Empire. After the Canadian Confederation, The Maple Leaf Forever was, due to its popularity, mostly considered as the country's de facto anthem. Its overtly British sentiments made it unpopular with Quebec, hence the reason why it never became the official anthem. In 1939, O Canada, having been written nearly a hundred years prior, began to gain popularity as the country's de facto anthem due to its bilingual nature. After the establishment of Saboria and Communist Canada, the anthem was changed to Forever Saboria. Following the return to Confederation, O Canada became the anthem once again.
Gens du Pays was first performed by Gilles Vigneault on 21 June 1975 at Montréal's Fête nationale du Québec celebrations. The song quickly became a folk song, and was regularly played on future Fête nationale celebrations. At one point, it had been considered as the unofficial anthem of Quebec, Disparu's predecessor. The song had been a symbol of the Quebec sovereignty movement.
After Quebec's secession from Canada, the Disparu Committee selected Le Festin, a song by French artist Camille Dalmais in lieu of Gens du Pays as the national anthem of the new nation. The reason for the former's selection over the de facto anthem of Quebec remains unknown; nevertheless, the Committee's decision was unpopular. Many began to assume that the Committee was pursuing its own agenda, rather than following the will of the Québécois.
During the 2010 Disparuean elections, the Empire Party promised that when elected, Gens du Pays would replace Le Festin as the national anthem. This gained them popularity for the duration of the campaign, and was one of the reasons why the Empire Party won a majority of the seats in the Commons. The promise was fulfilled several weeks later, with the support of other parties such as the Parti Français.
Lyrics[]
The official English version of the lyrics was slightly altered from the actual translation to fit the melody of the original version, however most of the meaning from the French lyrics were mostly retained in the English lyrics.
(fr) Gens du Pays | People of My Country (en) |
---|---|
Le temps que l'on a pris pour dire : « Je t'aime » |
The time that it took to say: "I love you" |
|