Italy's National Anthem: Il Canto degli Italiani 🇮🇹 | History & Significance

"Il Canto degli Italiani" (The Song of the Italians) is a canto written by Goffredo Mameli set to music by Michele Novaro in 1847, and is the current national anthem of Italy. It is best known among Italians as the Inno di Mameli (Mameli's Hymn), after the author of the lyrics, or Fratelli d'Italia, "Brothers of Italy", from its opening line. The piece, a 4/4 in B-flat major, consists of six strophes and a refrain that is sung at the end of each strophe. The sixth group of verses, which is almost never performed, recalls the text of the first strophe. <br /><br />After the Second World War, Italy became a republic, and Il Canto degli Italiani was chosen, on 12 October 1946, as a provisional national anthem, a role that it later preserved while remaining the de facto anthem of the Italian Republic. Over the decades there were several unsuccessful attempts to make it the official national anthem, but it finally gained de jure status on 4 December 2017.