[9] The poem was first publicly sung with great success in front of a large Slavic audience on 22 October 1860, and was first published in Slovenski glasnik (English: The Slovene Herald) on 1 December 1860.

[8] He arranged the melody by Davorin Jenko for piano,[13] wrote an interlinear translation and published it lithographed as an independent publication.

[8] The poem was originally titled "Naprej" ("Forward") and set to music in an inn in Vienna's Prater by Davorin Jenko,[notes 2] who was in anger over the German snub of the Slovene, on 16 May 1860.

[9] After the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, the first and the last stanza of the poem were included into the Yugoslav national anthem as its third part, in a medley including the Serb ethnic anthem "Bože pravde" and the Croatian song "Lijepa naša domovino".

[16] With the establishment of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946, the royal Yugoslav anthem was replaced by "Hey, Slavs".

"Naprej, zastava slave" was used at official public events and on state holidays since the beginning of the 1970s.

Refren: Naprej zastava slave, na boj junaška kri za blagor očetnjave 𝄆 naj puška govori!

Z orožjem in desnico, nesimo vragu grom, zapisat v kri pravico, 𝄆 ki terja jo naš dom.

With weapons on our right, we bring the wrath of devil to write in blood the justice 𝄆 that our home demands.