What song is sung on New Year's Eve at midnight?

As the clock strikes twelve on December 31st, crowds around the world join together in song to welcome the new year. The tradition spans cultures and generations, bringing strangers together in a shared musical moment. What exactly is that familiar tune everyone belts out when the ball drops?

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The answer is: "Auld Lang Syne"

"Auld Lang Syne" became the unofficial New Year's anthem thanks to a Canadian guy who really loved throwing parties. Guy Lombardo's first New Year's Eve broadcast was from New York's Roosevelt Hotel on December 31st, 1929. Lombardo and his Royal Canadian Big Band were familiar with the song back home in western Ontario, an area with a large Scottish population, as a way to end a night of dancing.

Lombardo's New Year's Eve broadcasts ran for nearly 50 years, reaching millions of Americans. Most people singing it have no idea what "auld lang syne" means (Looking at you, Harry). It's actually Scots language for "old long since" or more casually "old times." The lyrics were written by Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1788, but the melody dates back to an old folk song.

The song became so synonymous with Lombardo that he earned the nickname "Mr. New Year's Eve." His version was so definitive that even after his death in 1977, Times Square continued to play his recording at midnight. Now, decades later, we're still singing this centuries-old Scottish folk tune, popularized in America by a Canadian child of Italian immigrants, every December 31st, even if we're a bit fuzzy on the words.