Aguilera flubs national anthem at Super Bowl
February 6th, 2011
09:31 PM ET

Aguilera flubs national anthem at Super Bowl

O say, can Christina have a do-over?

Christina Aguilera helped kick off Sunday's Super Bowl with a singer's nightmare, flubbing the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner" about 40 seconds into the song as tens of millions prepared to watch the game between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Standing at midfield at Texas' Cowboys Stadium, the singer-actress mixed a previously sung clause with the one she was supposed to be on.

Here's what she sang, with the error in bold:

"O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
What so proudly we watched at the twilight’s last [unintelligible].â€

That fourth line was supposed to be: "O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming."

In a statement released by her publicist, Aguilera explained what happened:

"I got so lost in the moment of the song that I lost my place," the singer said. "I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through."

Aguilera isn't the first person to have trouble with the song, as Time magazine's "Top 10 Worst National-Anthem Renditions" will remind us.

The list includes Michael Bolton's effort at a 2003 playoff baseball game in Boston's Fenway Park, where he had to pause midsong and check some notes before correctly getting through the same line that troubled Aguilera.

Aguilera sang the national anthem twice during last year's NBA finals. She delivered both performances without incident.

- CNN's Denise Quan contributed to this report.

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Filed under: Celebrity • Football • Pro football • Showbiz • Sports
soundoff (2,138 Responses)
  1. Dennis

    We should start hiring professional singers. If the singer messes up have the Security escort him or her off the stage and find a regular person to sing the Anthem.

    February 9, 2011 at 12:53 pm | Report abuse |
  2. Mr Perfect

    Dont pay her...simple as that. Worst crap ever heard. Back to the trailer!!!

    February 9, 2011 at 7:59 pm | Report abuse |
  3. Mary

    Practice makes perfect, or less booze and mind altering drugs the night before. hehe

    February 12, 2011 at 11:54 am | Report abuse |
  4. LYNWOOD MOORE

    SHE CHANGED THE WORDS TO THE SONG FOR SOME REASON , IT MAY HAVE BEEN DO TO THE PLAY TIME OF THE GAME ,

    March 5, 2011 at 1:25 pm | Report abuse |
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    That does sound good though i am just still not so certain that I favor it. In any case will look further into it and choose personally! 🙂

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