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].”
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.
Wow J0nx....I said the same thing...she looks like Cyndy Lauper. But why do these pop stars have to jazz up the National Anthem.. Why can't they sing it the way it was written. And the halftime show sucked. Fergie's mike was louder than the rest and they were off key quite a bit....it did sound like karaoke....
That is ridiculous , i understand if it was her song but the star spangle banner go kill yourself
She pretends like she put all her heart into it but she can't remember the words? She was just over vocalizing for publicity and ended up messing the words up.
IF there ever is a next time, and I stress the word IF, use a teleprompter. Too many willing to make excuses for blowing the words of our NATIONAL ANTHEM. You know, it's the song that's been around for a long, long time. Get the words right, then worry about whether your interpretation "rocks."
nickleback would have done a better job.
"Give them all a ball, then they'll stop fighting over it." We are a nation of sports fans, not a nation of intellectuals, it is true.
The disregard many of you have for our national anthem is surprising. The disrespect you have for our language, though is imbecilic.
Du sprtz nut dregs. Duh.
What an idiot....quality has gone out the window in this country....It is unacceptable...
Whitney Houston should do the national anthem every year. Prince should do the halftime show every year. Just show the best performances in history and skip all the crappy performances.
And while we're having a National Anthem Performance discussion, can someone explain to me why so many performers begin the whole thing with "Hoh" instead of "Oh"? When I review it in my head (Yes I know all the words, 1st verse anyway) I come up with only 3 words that begin with an "h" sound! Sometimes pop singers use such inappropriate technique that the true words are almost indecipherable!
How about getting someone that can sing? I am so tired of watching pop artists try to dress the anthem.
Here we have a Halloween character chopping it up – what a brain flash –
If this woman can sing, my cat is Kate Smith.
Why is this the front page on CNN? So she messed up a little bit. To tell you the truth, I didn't even notice at the time, and I don't really care because it wasn't that terrible a mix up. Obviously she can do it correctly and has done it before. So she's human and made a mistake. Ho hum, move on.
I just don't understand and I will never get it why singers can't simply sing a song as it was intended to be sung instead of butchering the hell out of it. Lost in the moment? Give me a break, it was all about her, just like all the other big fat egos who kill a song.
I'm a singer in a band and, believe me, it is easy to mess up the words of a song. With all the classic national anthem flubs, I'm surprised they don't use a teleprompter. Heck, Paul McCartney uses one to remember the words to Yesterday. I thought she did a great job.
Dumb disney channel bimbo.
LOVE YOU CHRISTINA!!!!!