National anthem compositions for consideration, including Benjamin Britten, William Walton, Gian Carlo Menotti and Zubir Said, who later composed "Majulah Singapura", the national anthem of Singapore. None were deemed suitable. A few anthems have words by Nobel laureates in literature. The first Asian laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, wrote the words and music of "Jana Gana Mana" and "Amar Shonar Bangla", later adopted as the national anthems of India and Bangladesh respectively. Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson wrote the lyrics for the Norwegian national anthem "Ja, vi elsker dette landet". Other countries had their anthems composed by locally important people. This is the case for Colombia, whose
Jana Gana Mana enthralled the college students while Margaret Cousins, then vice-principal of the college (also an expert in European music and wife of Irish poet James Cousins), both requested Tagore to create an English translation of the song and set down the musical notation to the national anthem, which is followed only when the song is sung in the original slow rendition style. Tagore translated the work into English while at the college on 28 February 1919, titled . The college adopted Tagore's translation of the song as their prayer song which is sung till today. Before it was the national anthem