| Chamorro: italic=no|Gi Talo Gi Halom Tasi | |
| Alt Title: | italic=no|Satil matawal Pacifico |
| English Title: | In the Middle of the Sea |
| Prefix: | Regional |
| Country: | the |
| Author: | David Kapileo Taulamwaar Peter |
| Lyrics Date: | 1976 (Chamorro lyrics: Jose and Joaqin Pangelinan, 1940s) |
| Composer: | German folk tune |
| Sound: | Regional anthem of the Northern Mariana Islands, performed by the United States Navy Band.oga |
| Sound Title: | U.S. Navy Band instrumental version (one verse and chorus) |
"Chamorro: italic=no|Gi Talo Gi Halom Tasi" (pronounced as /ch/;), also known as "italic=no|Satil matawal Pacifico" (pronounced as /cal/), is the regional anthem of the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth of the United States.
The Chamorro lyrics for the official commonwealth anthem of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) were jointly written by brothers Jose[1] and Joaquin Pangelinan, presumably around the time after the Second World War had ended. The Carolinian lyrics for the CNMI's commonwealth anthem were written by David Kapileo Peter "Taulamwaar"[2] the day before the signing of the Covenant in 1976. David Marciano assisted with parts of the Carolinian version of the lyrics, and his contributions were incorporated before being sang for the first time on the day that the Covenant with the United States of America was signed. Vicente "Kilili" Sablan Sr., former Mayor of the Northern Mariana Islands capital, Saipan, assisted by translating the lyrics into English and Japanese. The Rematau band was the first group to sing and record the "Commonwealth National Anthem".
During the First Constitutional Convention, a resolution was introduced to compel the new government to proclaim the song as the official anthem of the soon-to-be-created Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In 1996, it became the official commonwealth anthem by virtue of Public Law 10-28, authored in the Tenth CNMI Legislature and signed by then Governor Froilan Cruz Tenorio into law.[3] Both versions of the commonwealth anthem are taught to students as well as displayed prominently in official programs and posters, as both versions make up the one commonwealth anthem – not one or the other. The melody of the song is taken from the 19th-century German tune "Im schönsten Wiesengrunde"[4] [5] [6] (with lyrics written by Wilhelm Ganzhorn in 1851[7]), which in turn is based on the older folk tune "Drei Lilien, drei Lilien".[8] Coincidentally, the national anthem of the neighboring Federated States of Micronesia is derived from a 19th-century German song.
Since the islands are a U.S. dependency, the national anthem is still the U.S. one, "The Star-Spangled Banner", and the anthem is played after "The Star-Spangled Banner" in the raising of the commonwealth flag.
