Ja, må han (hon) leva (Yes, may he (she) live) is a Swedish birthday song. It originates from the 18th century, but the use as well as its lyrics and melody has changed over the years. It is a song that "every Swede" knows and it is therefore rarely printed in songbooks. Both lyrics and melody are of unknown origin.[1] It has a similar melody as the Dutch birthday song "Lang zal hij leven",[2] Dutch-translated Afrikaans wedding song "Lank sal [hy/sy/hul] lewe", Dutch-translated Indonesian birthday song "Panjang Umurnya" [3] and Romanian birthday song "Mulți ani trăiască".[4]
James Massengale states that the melody is of a common 18th century form, used by both Mozart and Haydn, and was therefore well known in Austria at the end of the 18th century.[5]
Carl Michael Bellman uses the melody in different shapes for three different songs. Fredman's song no. 11 (“Portugal, Spanjen”) has the form of a light 3/8 Contra dance while no. 12 (”Venus Minerva”) is a steady march in 4/4. This melody is also used in the song "Högtid beredes och Ganymedes".[5] [6]
In Germany the melody was published in 1877 in a songbook for high schools with the words ”Hoch soll er leben”.[7] In the Netherlands the song "Lang zal hij leven" is used at birthdays. The three first bars of these songs are equal to ”Ja må han leva”.[8]
The three songs by Bellman have all words concerning drinking and feast. The wedding song "Brudgum och bruden vilka i skruden" published in a broadsheet around 1800 is noted to be sung to the melody of "Venus Minerva".[5]
The Swedish Salvation Army published in Stridsropet (The War Cry) in 1884 a hymn "Jesus allena mitt hjärta skall äga" ("Jesus alone shall own my heart") to the melody of ”Venus Minerva”.[9]
The first time the song appears with the lyrics "Ja må han leva" is in a student songbook in 1914,[10] then used as a drinking song and the first confirmation of the use of the song as a birthday song is as late as of around 1940.[11] Consequently, the song was mainly used as a drinking song during the 19th century but from around 1940 mainly as a birthday song.[12]
