Background Twenty-three-year-old
Janko Matúška wrote the lyrics of "Nad Tatrou sa blýska" in January and February 1844. The tune came from the folk song "
Kopala studienku" () suggested to him by his fellow student Jozef Podhradský, a future religious and
Pan-Slavic activist and
gymnasial teacher, when Matúška and about two dozen other students left their prestigious Lutheran
lyceum of
Pressburg (preparatory high school and college) in protest over the removal of
Ľudovít Štúr from his teaching position by the Lutheran Church under pressure from the authorities. The territory of present-day Slovakia was part of
the Kingdom of Hungary within the Austrian Empire then, and the officials
objected to his Slovak nationalism. "Lightning over the Tatras" was written during the weeks when the students were agitated about the repeated denials of their and others' appeals to the school board to reverse Štúr's dismissal. About a dozen of the defecting students transferred to the Lutheran gymnasium of
Levoča. When one of the students, the 18-year-old budding journalist and writer Viliam Pauliny-Tóth, wrote down the oldest known record of the poem in his school notebook in 1844, he gave it the title of
Prešporskí Slováci, budúci Levočania (Pressburg Slovaks, Future Levočians), which reflected the motivation of its origin. The journey from Pressburg (present-day
Bratislava) to Levoča took the students past the
High Tatras, Slovakia's and the then
Kingdom of Hungary's highest, imposing, and symbolic mountain range. A storm above the mountains is a key theme in the poem.
Versions No authorized version of Matúška's lyrics has been preserved and its early records remained without attribution. He stopped publishing after 1849 and later became clerk of the district court. The song became popular during the
Slovak Volunteer campaigns of 1848 and 1849. Its text was copied and recopied in hand before it appeared in print in 1851 (unattributed, as
Dobrovoľnícka – Volunteer Song), which gave rise to some variation, namely concerning the phrase
zastavme ich ("let's stop them") or
zastavme sa ("let's stop"). A review of the extant copies and related literature inferred that Matúška's original was most likely to have contained "let's stop them." Among other documents, it occurred both in its oldest preserved handwritten record from 1844 and in its first printed version from 1851. The legislated Slovak national anthem uses this version, the other phrase was used from 1920 to 1993 (as the second part of the anthem of
Czechoslovakia with
Kde domov můj). On January 1, 2025 at midnight, the public broadcaster
Slovak Television and Radio first introduced a partially revised version of its national anthem. This updated rendition features a modernized melody and a slightly slower tempo. Notably, the new arrangement includes the sound of the
fujara, a traditional Slovak folk instrument, in the final seconds of the melody. The arrangement was overseen by Oskar Rózsa and his musical assembly. Public opinion on the change remains divided. While some have welcomed the modernization of the anthem, others question the necessity and quality of the revision as well as the procedural aspects of the change. Critics pointed out that the revision of national anthem should have taken place through an open competition and not assigned directly to Rózsa, who has embraced extreme right-wing talking points and conspiracy theories held by the culture minister
Martina Šimkovičová and her head of cabinet Lukáš Machala. Additionally, the comments by Rózsa, who in response to criticism claimed his version of the anthem was not for liberals, who should "crawl into their holes" as their time in Slovakia was ending were met with widespread condemnation. Additionally, the new version of the anthem was poorly received by critics who labeled it a "kitch" and "sad funeral music". Finally, critics argue that the cost of revision, which amounted to approximately €50,000, was too large and that these funds could have been better allocated to sectors such as education or healthcare. ==National anthem==