Editing UP Naming Mahal (section)

==History==
Sometime in the early 1920s, a contest was held to give expression to that elusive thing—the “UP Spirit.” A contest was held to select the lyrics to be put to music, and both words and notes were to move both students and alumni to recall what it meant to belong to the [[University of the Philippines]].
[[Image:Nicanor Abelardo.jpg|200px|thumb|right|The musician of ''UP Naming Mahal'', Nicanor Abelardo]]
The winning entry was written by Teogenes Velez, a Liberal Arts student.

Then another contest was held to set the winning poem to music. Legend has it that a student at the [[UP College of Music#History|Conservatory of Music]], [[Nicanor Abelardo]], had just returned home from a town fiesta in Pampanga and his wife reminded him of the contest’s deadline, which was noon of that same day. Whereupon the young man sat down and in just one hour had the piece ready, and was able to submit it on time.

The song, “UP Beloved,” was first sung before a UP audience in 1917. And from then on it has been a party of all UP activities.

The Filipino version, “UP Naming Mahal,” is a composite from seven translations received by a screening committee, which found none of them fully satisfactory, and contributed some lines themselves. Today, the song is as much an emblem of the UP spirit as the famous [[UP Oblation|Oblation]].