The national anthems of these countries have no official lyrics

A national anthem without any words? While this sounds strange, there is no reason to be surprised. There are only four countries in the world who have national anthems without any official lyrics.

These purely instrumental anthems are results of political disagreements or the desire for neutrality.

The Spanish national anthem, Marcha Real (Royal March) was composed by Manuel de Espinosa de los Monteros. A musician in the Spanish military, he composed it in 1761, making the anthem one of the oldest in the world. In the 1770s, it was announced to be the official march of Spain by King Charles III.

Spain's national anthem is also one among the only four national anthems that does not have any official lyrics. There had been attempts to put words to the music during the reign of Francisco Franco (1892–1975) by several writers. Again, in 2007, the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) organised a national contest to come up with an official lyrics but aborted the initiative due to backlash.

Hence, the country could never agree on a set of words for the anthem which continues to an instrumental piece only.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's national anthem, Intermeco, is yet another instrumental piece with no lyrics. It was composed in 1998 by Bosnian musician Dušan Šestić and was provisionally adopted as the national anthem by the Office of the High Representative in 1999.

Finally, in 2001, it was conferred with the honour of the official anthem, replacing the previous one, Jedna si jedina. Dušan and Benjamin Isović have penned words for the musical piece but they have not yet been accepted or made official by the government.

Terra di Libertà (Land of Liberty), the national anthem of San Marino, the fifth smallest country in the world, dates back to the 19th century when it was composed by Jewish-Italian composer Federico Consolo in 1894.

Also referred to as the "official hymn of the Republic", it has no official lyrics. The melody is based on a 10th-century monastic chorale and is not entirely original. It was officially adopted by the country on September 11, 1894.

However, despite it being a strictly instrumental piece, Italian poet and Nobel Prize winner Giosuè Carducci wrote an unofficial verse in the same year it was adopted.

The national anthem of Kosovo, called Europe, was adopted as recently as June 11, 2008, after the Republic of Kosovo came to be on February 17, 2008. It is the fourth such national anthem in the world to not have any words.

The composition was by Kosovar composer Mendi Mengjiqi and the title reflects the country's desire for peace and integration with the rest of Europe.

The decision to not give words to the melody was to make sure there was no priority or preference given to a particular language or ethnicity, given that Kosovo is a country to multiple ethnicities such as the Albanian, Serbian, Turk and more.

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