Portuguese National Anthem - Heroes of the sea, noble race -
At the end of the XVIII century, under the reign of Charles I, Portugal, which was then a prominent colonial power, was given an ultimatum by England prohibiting her from gathering its colonies of Angola and Mozambique, and ordering her to withdraw its troops from the disputed area. London’s objective was to preserve the territorial continuity of its own colonies on the African continent, which spanned from Egypt to South Africa.
This patriotic song, written in 1890 by Henrique Lopez de Mendonça, symbolises the determination and the somewhat republican sensitivity of the Portuguese people, whose reputation had thus been doubly soiled with the intransigence of England, with which she hitherto had privileged ties. The melody was composed by Alfredo Keil. A 1911 law decreed A Portuguesa the national anthem of Portugal.
The 1 minute 18 seconds MP3 track proposed on this site is an instrumental version.