The Rromani Anthem
The lyrics of the international Rromani
anthem "Gelem Gelem" were written by a Rromany musician and
politician Zarko Jovanovic from Beograd who has been living for years in Paris.
The interesting thing is that Czech
and Slovak Rromanies have their own anthem "Čhajori Romani" which
was composed in the concentration camp Auschwitz. The international anthem was
adopted as late as in 1990'.
The lyrics were
set to a traditional Romany melody.