We have to admit, that it's not the best song we heard during our stay on the island, but O Sweet Saint Martin's Land contains all the necessary ingredients for a good sing along song including a catchy rhythm and inviting words. Father Gerard Kemps wrote the song in 1958 'because I had to sing of the sweetness, the grace, and the incomparable beauty of the land that was unfolding before my eyes'. Kemps was a Roman Catholic priest who worked on the French side of Saint Martin for over 30 years. Both sides adopted the song as their national anthem.

O Sweet St. Maarten land

Where over the world, say where,
You find an island there,
So lovely small with nations free
With people French and Dutch
Though talking English much,
As thee Saint Martin in the sea ?

Chorus :
O sweet Saint Martin's Land
So bright by beach and strand
With sailors on the sea and harbors free
Where the chains of mountains green
Variously in sunlight sheen

Oh I love thy Paradise,
Nature beauty fairly nice (twice)''

How pretty between all green
Flamboyants beaming gleam
Of flowers red by sunlight set
Thy cows and sheep and goats
In meadows or on the roads
Thy donkeys keen I can't forget

Thy useful birds in white
Their morn and evening flight
Like aircrafts-wings in unity
Their coming down for food
Then turning back to roost
Bring home to me their harmony

Saint Martin I like thy name
In which Columbus fame
And memories of old are closed
For me a great delight
Thy Southern Cross the night
May God the Lord protect thy coast!