They could sing the Brabançonne in our two languages
I believe it was sung in the 3 official languages alternating the verses.
Personally I didn't like that rendition. The Brabançonne is one of the most beautiful national anthems in Europe, but the arrangement for the choir did not fit the music well in my very humble opinion.
By the way, a clear advantage of playing the anthems after the speeches as done in the UK is that there is a pause between the end of the speech and the toast so that the toast can be synchronized. The way it was done yesterday, you may see that King Philippe was still making the toast in the 3 official languages while King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima were already up holding their glasses. Then, when King Philippe stopped speaking, it took him a minute or so to get rid of the microphone and raise his own glass while everybody else was already waiting for over 2 minutes for the toast to commence, which was quite awkward.
Furthermore. playing the anthems in alternate order after each speech is more logical. The King of Netherlands would toast the King of the Belgians and the Belgian anthem would then be played in honor of the person (or the country) that is being toasted and, vice-versa, when the King of the Belgians toasted the King of the Netherlands, the Dutch anthem would be played in honor of the Netherlands. Playing both antherms back to back at the beginning of the banquet misses the point.
I also think that the Belgian court should adopt the British and Danish custom of hailing the speeches with trumpets or some other kind of cue to the speaker as to when he/she should start speaking. That way, everybody could be properly seated before the head of state receives the cue to stand up and start speaking, rather than the confusion we saw yesterday when the guests of honor were entering the hall.
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