Man, talk about winning a poetry contest! Some 52-year-old bloke, named Paulino Cubero, has won the competition to author the lyrics to the Spanish National Anthem. Coming from the super-duper patriotic, "pledge allegiance to the flag every morning in elementary school", United States to a country where they don't even have lyrics for the national anthem is a shock. National pride is something Spain could use a lot of, with all its separatist states. Anyway, the winning lyrics are:
¡Viva España! Cantamos todos juntos con distincta voz y un solo corazón.
¡Viva España! Desde los verdes valles Al inmenso mar Un himno de hermandad
Ama a la Patria pues sabe abrazar bajo su cielo azul pueblos en libertad
Gloria a los hijos que a la Historia dan justicia y grandeza democracia y paz.
Long live Spain, we sing it all together, with different voices and a single heart.
Long live Spain, from the green valleys to the immense sea, a hymn of brotherhood.
Love for the homeland which embraces us, under the blue sky, peoples in freedom.
Glory to the sons who History will bless with justice and greatness, democracy and peace.
You can read more about this here (in English), where I stole this translation from.
This YouTube video is pretty cute, too.
I like how they chose to use photos of Gloria Estefan (the first result on Google Image Search, even) and Melanie Olivares (who plays a character called Paz on a popular television sit-com) to represent the word "gloria" and "paz" respectively.
