Published on : 09/17/2022 – 14:16Modified: 09/17/2022 – 14:14
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Paris (AFP) – The only recently sung version of the British anthem “God Save The King” currently available on streaming platforms was recorded in 2017 by French singer and opera teacher Arnaud Kientz.
This 51-year-old baritone, who had already sung the French national anthem “La Marseillaise” in 2016, was recording “God Save The Queen” a year later at the request of the Musigram label, when the idea of singing an alternate version.
“There has already been a + King + (…), and then sometimes we hear it in the movies. So we told ourselves that we would also record + God Save the King +”, explains the artist to AFP.
Listened to a total of “500,000” times “for the moment” on various online listening platforms (Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music …), its two versions, sung or instrumental, of the new British anthem are also a cartoon on the social video TikTok network. In just a few days, they were taken over 1,000 times by users.
A sudden enthusiasm, fueled by press articles including one from the British newspaper The Guardian, that Arnaud Kientz didn’t expect: “It’s pretty funny,” he says, happy to have reached a younger audience.
“It makes me happy. It allows them to hear a voice they’re not used to” listening to, and “the opera genre needs young people,” he adds with a smile.
At the moment, only the French version and a 1932 recording of Maurice Winnick are available for commercial use of “God Save the King”.
Since Queen Elizabeth II’s death, some music labels have also begun to rename instrumental versions of the anthem.
The BBC invited Scottish mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins to record the anthem with the correct lyrics, but this version has not been released.
© 2022 AFP
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