Well, even if you didn’t see it, you’ve probably heard by now that Christina Aguilera butchered The Star-Spangled Banner last night before the Super Bowl. I’d put the video up, but I have little confidence a specific instance of it would last long.
She’s being eviscerated, and I have no pity for her. If you stand up and say you’re going to sing the national anthem before the Super Bowl, then you cannot make a mistake. You don’t get to be nervous. You’re not allowed the privilege of getting “so lost in the moment of the song,” as her statement said.
It’s a story because she flubbed the lyrics, but she was also one of the more obnoxious practitioners of the “make the song her own” school of thought that I’ve ever heard. Sweetie, that’s a single note on my sheet of music, not four. Also, you know the “microphone”? That’s what makes your voice able to be heard throughout the stadium. It works very well even if you don’t shriek.
The silver lining is that now it seems a slam-dunk we’ll get a spectacular rendition next year, doesn’t it?
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I hit the “mute” button during the pregame festivities. Thus, I thankfully missed the butchering.
I’m sick of “pop” stars being hired to sing the Anthem. Applying one’s own “take” on this particular piece of music is not only improper, it’s patently offensive. Sing the damn notes on the damn page and get the words right. There are so many other people to audition and hire – even if they aren’t “stars” that this sort of musical travesty is totally unnecessary. But then the same people booked the Black Eyed Peas….
I was taught that “an amateur practices until they get it right. A professional practices untiil they cannot do it wrong.” Ms. Aguilera, by inference and evidence, sure as hell is no professional.
Good grief – could it have been any worse. I love to hear our National Anthem sung, but now I wish that I’d have muted CA. The look on Mike McCarthy’s face when they panned over to him said it all.
I can only hope that next year’s performers are more professional and KNOW the words.
Think we can convince whomever is in charge to hire the gentleman who sang at the Bears’ game to sing at next year’s SuperBowl?
Needs to be military performers every time. They will have the pride to let the song speak for itself, treat it with the proper respect, not dress like carnie folk, and oh yeah, get the damned words right.
The Bears rendition in the NFC Title game was great, but mostly because the place went bonkers during the whole song (carryover from the Blackhawks I see). I think Bobcat Goldthweit could shout his way through it if he had those nuts at Soldier Field backing him up.
I love gospel songs. Our national anthem is not one of them. If the powers that be want to have a known singer or group perform it at a major event, maybe they should look back at Huey Lewis & The News performing at a baseball game back in the 80s to get an idea of how it should be sung. It’s not a performance piece, it’s our anthem and it should be sung how it was written. More focus on the words and meaning and less embellishment to show the range or creative style of he singer. Bah.
Reminds me of the time I went to the Bama vs. Va. Tech Music City bowl in 1998. They had some dude do an instrumental version of the Star Spangled Banner on an electric guitar. It was beyond horrible. In fact, it was so bad that the entire stadium booed the poor guy off the field, and then proceeded to sing it. All 35K – 40K of us. And we sounded pretty good, if I do say so myself!
I wouldn’t call it a slam dunk for a spectacular rendition next year. Your faith in lesson learning is stronger than mine. As a matter of fact, I tend to think the opposite. Christina is just participating in our “look at me” society. She sings in the style that gets the most applause. “American Idol” shuffles through thousands of them each year. It doesn’t make me sad and I’m not going to wring my hands about it. It was kind of funny that the writer of the CNN article you linked felt the need to include the actual lyrics with the flubbed ones. Kind of telling what he thinks about his readership. When it happened I was halfway paying attention (I guess I should have been standing at attention) and I actually went online to see what she screwed up. It didn’t take long for the masses to start piling on. A similar school of thought comes by the critics. If we feel the need to jump on the internets within minutes and tell our view about her on Twitter, and Facebook, and MySpace, and our blogs, isn’t it a cyber version of oversinging?
At least she wasn’t intentionally trying to mess it up, unlike Roseanne Barr, who, by far, has done the worst, and most disrespectful, rendition of the anthem, ever.
I’ll see your Rosanne Barr and raise you a Carl Lewis.
“Uh oh!”