Denes nad Makedonija

"Denes nad Makedonija" (Денес над Македонија, ; lit. 'Today over Macedonia') is the national anthem of North Macedonia. Todor Skalovski composed the music and Vlado Maleski wrote the lyrics of the song in the early 1940s. It was adopted as the national anthem in 1992, almost a year after the state's independence from Yugoslavia. Before its adoption as a national anthem, it was used as the regional anthem of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, a constituent state of Yugoslavia, before it became the national anthem of the Republic of North Macedonia.

History


The lyrics of "Denes nad Makedonija" were penned by Vlado Maleski, a writer who was active in the Partisan movement during World War II. The musical portion was composed by Todor Skalovski. The song was first played in 1942 in Struga, among partisan and communist circles. According to oral recounts, the hymn was played by Maleski himself on New Year's Eve in the presence of 24 youths, whose identities were subsequently documented in writing only in 1981. Even though the resistance consisted of fighters from the different ethnic groups across Yugoslavia, the aforementioned youths are believed to have all identified as Macedonians. From the end of the war, it was utilized – albeit unofficially – as the regional anthem of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia (which was part of Yugoslavia at the time) until 1989. In June 1943, the song was published in a collection of Macedonian national liberation songs, edited by Kočo Racin. The lyrics were slightly different, mentioning Nikola Karev and Dimitar Vlahov.

During the Informbiro period, a small change was made in the lyrics. In the new version, the names of Karev and Vlahov were removed and that of Dame Gruev was added. Karev and his brothers were suspected of being Bulgarophiles. Vlahov also was dismissed, because he communicated much better in Bulgarian than in Macedonian and had no political supporters in SR Macedonia, among other reasons. According to Nikola Karev's nephew Mishe Karev, the communist elite discussed the idea of removing the name of Gotse Delchev too and not including that of Dame Gruev, and proclaiming them as Bulgarians, but it was declined. On 14 April 1989, the socialist republic's Assembly amended the Constitution of 1974, expressly affirming "Denes nad Makedonija" as its official regional anthem. However, this change was short-lived, as the Assembly declared Macedonia's sovereignty two years later in January. Macedonia's independence was approved on 8 September 1991 in a referendum that saw Macedonians vote overwhelmingly in favour of independence.

Soon after independence, the Macedonian national legislature held a contest to determine a national anthem for the state. "Denes nad Makedonija" was one of several candidates in contention – the others in the running were "Himna" ("Anthem", lit. 'Hymn') by Taki Hrisik and "Da ni bideš večna" ("That You Should be Eternal") by Aleksandar Džambazov – and ended up finishing runner-up in the final results. Despite this, most members of the Assembly Commission voted to make it the national anthem of the state, and it was duly adopted on 11 August 1992. The Albanian political parties did not support the anthem on the basis that it favoured one ethnic group and excluded the others.

Legal protection and reception
Macedonia's Sobranie (legislative chamber) passed legislation titled "The Law on the Anthem of the Republic of Macedonia" on 11 August 1992. This officially adopted "Denes nad Makedonija" as the national anthem of the country, with Article 2 specifically confirming the song's status as such. However, it did not stipulate which stanzas should be recognized as official. Article 5 of the country's constitution requires laws regarding national symbols to be approved by a two-thirds majority. Although 88 out of the 120 members of the Assembly voted for it, Albanian representatives were not involved.

In the 2011 IPSOS survey, 84,8% of the respondents said that they liked the anthem, while 15,2% said they did not. Ethnically, 54% of the Albanian respondents said they did not like it and 46% said they did, while 97% of the Macedonian respondents said that they liked it.

Lyrics
"Denes nad Makedonija", as originally written, consists of four stanzas. North Macedonia's law does not exactly specify which stanzas officially constitute the national anthem. However, the second stanza is often omitted from the lyrics of the national anthem that are posted on North Macedonia's government websites.

The lyrics of "Denes nad Makedonija" are reflective of a military marching song, which is fitting given its connection to the Yugoslav Macedonian theatre of the Second World War. They are not a call to arms for Macedonians; instead, the hymn uses imagery to take the person singing it back to the time the anthem was written and purports that they themselves were engaging in combat at the time. The lyrics previously alluded to the concepts of mothers and motherhood (specifically in the second stanza). This is in line with the national anthems – both past and present – of other Southeast European countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina ("Jedna si jedina"), Croatia ("Horvatska domovina"), and Montenegro ("Oj, svijetla majska zoro"). It discussed how mothers mourn for their fallen sons, who died fighting for the rights and liberty of their country. They are comforted for their loss by being reminded of the bravery of their sons and the nobleness of the cause for which they died. Although this theme has been described as a "standard anthemic device", it was subsequently expunged from the official words of the state anthem. The lyrics which also mention the inter-generational and inter-gender unity in the fight for rights are omitted.