1988 sang die amerikanische Folk-Queen Joan Baez „Txoria txori“ vor einem vollbesetzten baskischen Publikum in Bilbo. Es ist wahrscheinlich das berühmteste Lied in der baskischen Sprache und wird im Baskenland oft als dessen de-facto-Nationalhymne angesehen.

The song was originally not a song, but a poem by the Basque writer, poet and musician Joxean Artze (1939-2018).

Mikel Laboa (1934-2008), the „Bob Dylan“ of our Basque music scene, one night in 1968 was dining in a bar in the Old Town of Donostia when he noticed that the napkins of the bar had this poem printed on them, and inspired, he put the words into music.

Since then, the poem has become extremely well-known throughout the Basque Country (both the North Basque Country and the South Basque Country). It’s used in institutional events all the way to sporting events. I personally don’t like how it has become popularised, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to officialise it into the national anthem, because it would lose its power.

I’ve included subtitles in the Basque, Aragonese, Asturian and Occitan language (in the variety spoken in the Val d’Aran). Here is the English translation:

>If I had clipped its wings
It would have been mine
It wouldn’t have flown away
But then 
It would no longer have been a bird
And it was the bird that I loved

Did she later go to Berlin and sang “Erika”?