Swiss try to yodel up a groovier national anthem

More than 200 songwriters have entered a contest to change Switzerland’s national anthem, organisers who want to bin the less than rousing current version said on July 7.

Lukas Niederberger, director of the Swiss Society For Public Good, said that 215 entries had submitted to replace The Swiss Psalm, which critics liken to a weather forecast crossed with a religious hymn, given its repeated references to God and Alpine vistas. The song has only been the country’s official anthem since 1981, when it replaced another anthem set, rather confusingly, to the tune of Britain’s God Save The Queen.