A BRITISH record producer who started his career as a tea-boy in a London studio has emerged as the man behind a Spanish-language version of The Star-Spangled Banner, America’s national anthem, that has upset President George W Bush.

Adam Kidron, 46, released Nuestro Himno — Our Anthem — on Friday as a gesture of support for Hispanic immigrants. He has outraged rightwingers who complain that the Spanish version’s new lyrics are confrontational, and that immigrants do not make enough effort to learn English.

America’s 40m Latinos have declared tomorrow a day of protest to back demands for improved citizenship rights for 11m Hispanic illegal immigrants.

As the country braced itself for the shutdown of schools, restaurants and building sites, Bush declared at a White House press conference: “I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English.” Other right-wingers have complained that the new version is disrespectful to American patriotism and divisively belligerent in tone. One of the Spanish lines — sung by a Latin star named Pitbull — translates as: “My people keep fighting/ It’s time to break the chains.”

Kidron was unrepentant yesterday. As chief executive of Urban Box Office, which specialises in Latin music, he works closely with immigrant musicians. His idea for a revised national anthem came when a Republican congressman declared on television that illegal immigrants ought to be kicked out.

Kidron said he was “disgusted” by America’s lack of generosity towards workers whose cheap labour is regarded by many as crucial to the US economy. He looked around for a record that would be “a song of pride for Latinos” and hit on the idea of Latin musicians reinterpreting The Star- Spangled Banner.

“I suppose I had a faint idea that if you do something a bit different, someone always complains,” he said. “But it just seemed really cool to do something that was artful, emotional and, to some extent, patriotic.”

Instead, Kidron’s New York office was flooded with hate mail complaining that he was demeaning the national anthem and discouraging immigrants from embracing American culture. As the US television networks scrambled to book him for interviews he said: “I’m afraid we may be stoking prejudice. We don’t seem to be much of a cultural bridge.”

Kidron built a successful career in London in the 1980s producing artists such as Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Neneh Cherry and Aztec Camera. He arrived in America in the 1990s and has developed Urban Box Office as a specialist entertainment company focused on Latin markets.

Among the artists featured on Nuestro Himno are Gloria Trevi, a Mexican pop diva, Ivy Queen, a Puerto Rican star, and Wyclef Jean, representing the Haitian immigrant community.

Kidron said he was appalled by the argument that Hispanic immigrants should leave their past behind in order to become Americans. “Look at how many Americans parade their Irish roots on St Patrick’s Day,” he said. “And go down to Little Italy in New York. When you hear people speaking Italian in those restaurants, you think, oh good, it’s authentic, the food must be good.

“Yet it seems to be a qualification for Hispanic immigrants that they mustn’t carry the flag of the country they were born in and they mustn’t sing in their own language because it proves they are not assimilating.”

He described Bush’s remarks as “ridiculous”.

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