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.
At least she didn't sing all of the verses to the song.
hahaah, funny!
Absolutely horrific! There is no excuse for messing up the National Anthem. Being a prior veteran myself, every time I hear this song it brings a tear to my eye...when sang correctly. I agree with Jane Kelly, just deliver the song. There is no reason to add all these extra notes. Way to go Christina! I hope there was some clause in your contract that says, "if you mess the song up, we may collect a refund".
@Chris...How can you be a "prior veteran"? did you die and come back again or what? I'm a veteran myself, but I did not realize one could be a prior veteran.
Dude you are either a veteran or not.
Mr. Fantastic you're an idiot. I hate people who pick apart grammar, semantics, spelling, and so on while posting to others' blogs. You claim to be a veteran in an attempt to give some additional credence to your post and then turn and make such an "astute observation" in the words chosen by another veteran in order to put them down. Moron. Before that you chastised ChicagoNick for insulting an entertainer, but yet you have no problem insulting another veteran.
You may very well be a veteran, but you are certainly a smart ass.
I'm a veteran and if you are too and aren't offended by all the rhetoric on this blog alluding to the lack of meaning in our National Anthem that you would have stood at attention to countless times, then you should be ashamed of yourself. I bet if you lost any fellow brothers in arms to combat and listened to the National Anthem at their memorial service, you were probably moved by it. You would have been upset if it was performed wrong. It always represents those men and women who serve, even at a football game, and should be performed with dignity.
More Canadians know the words to the American anthem than americans, its sad 60% of Americans are too fat too stand when its sung, If they keep gaining weight they won't be able to hold their big meaty hands over their over worked diabetic hearts for the duration of the song. just sayin
Bush and Cheney invaded Iraq and killed over 1 million innocent folks. I think that was much worse than making a mistake with our nat'l anthem. Too bad there wasnt a clause for those 2 war criminal clowns.
Aguilera did a wonderful singing job.
Christina Aguilera deserves every single bit of shame coming her way for being a bimbo.
there's no way you look that good' and singing i'am sure is worse
Every once in a blue moon I'll watch Whitney Houston's rendition of the anthem on Youtube, because it was that good! It's a challenging song, but it just flowed right out of her. It was such a great moment!
Bet she couldn't sing it now...
I didn't realize so many people had so little to do–(including me for this very moment!) What a shame–change the channel–it is only TV!
To those of you who say Christina has no talent: Seriously? Have you ever seen her in concert? She is EXTREMELY talented, and also 100% American. She screwed up, period. Cut her a break.
It's not that she missed some words. It's that she butchered it by not sining it straight, however, I knew she would do that. Virtually all pop and jip stars do just that, and it's wrong. It's our national anthem. It should be sung straight.
SHE WAS PAID TO SING IT. IF SHE SCREWED UP, WHATEVER, BUT SHE SHOULD GIVE THE MONEY BACK.
And she CAN sing. Problem is, she's more interested in doing something that superficially resembles singing, than actually singing, most of the time. Sad.
i vote for "I Got You (I Feel Good)" by james brown.
it's way more fun.
Best Version Ever...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRvVzaQ6i8A
Sounded like Mariah Carry on crack!
more like Mariah Carey with something IN her crack!
I forgive her... 🙂
YOU'RE A WUSS
for what? What did she do to you?
Christina did FINE.
The audience loved it.
Detailed accuracy is not that important,
how many other national anthems are a waltz?
shows what you know – NOTHING!
She didn't do THAT fine, she could have avoided this, she never had this problems before, she needed to stay focus in performing at her level and not focusing in performing the best performance, she has admitted being too perfectionist.
@joe IF you can do it better..................
meh...she's human.
Didn't really dig the half time show either. Sounded bad even on an HD system with surround sound. I actually turned the channel a couple of minutes into half time.
yeah messing up OUR national anthem was bad IMO because of the fact that solders have died for our country and all but what was worse was "like HI kk look at me....like I'm full of myself... like Hi everyone.... hi look I'm waving......lol jk like HI kk"..... what a joke Christina. And notice in the very beginning before the game Christina didn't know the camera was on and she was like "yeah uh when am i gonna get down from here.. like ok?" and then the announcer said her name and she was like, "HI kk look at me....like I'm full of myself... like Hi everyone.... hi look I'm waving......lol jk like HI kk". absolute shame.
She actually thanked the crowd at the end thinking they were cheering for her not the USA!!!
I agree. At least she wasn't lip syncing like so many pop stars.
She was also paid a small fortune to sing a very well known and simple (in terms of lyrics though not music) song and she messed up both the words and made a hash of the music. She owes them a full refund for the night plus damages.
Christina ranked right up there with one of the worse performances for singing our national anthem, whoever said she could sing? They should go back to letting the bands play it, less chance of screwing it up like the singers do.
Seriously!!! Rosannes rendition was horrible BUT AT LEAST SHE GOT THE WORDS RIGHT!!!!!
Good Lord this country is in DEEP trouble and all because we cater to the minority!!!!
Normally I like Xtina, but she totally screwed this up.... She knows the words.... Now, if you want to hear how it should be sung, I think this is one of the best versions... At a Chiefs game... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTrazyXGTi0 One Flew South - a cappella - no craziness...
Yeah. She's human.
Side bar...i kept looking at the stage with the three rows of flags behind the stage. The way it was ordered, it kind of looked like the French flag which is blue, white and red.
Yes she did flub it badly and her singing style makes my ears ache, but I did notice the flags the way they were displayed and remarked to my girlfriend that "Are we saluting France?" She took another look and said "How could they screw that up also?" Maybe let veterans sing and do the pre game festivities next time NFL.
Go figure, a Mexican singing the National Anthem. hmmmmmmm.
Mort, as was pointed out all over the place, she was born in NYC to a MILITARY family. Her dad was in the Army. Racist much?
Hey Merely Amused...that's all the more reason she should have gotten it right!
No one is perfect, maybe she got some anxiety or something singing in front of the whole nation on live television.
Oh grow some balls dude. For what she get's paid, and on a national stage, her performance should have been flawless. What an embarrassment to her generation. Simply disgusting!
so true joe. she needs to take a few deployments to Afghanistan.
She's been performing in front of live audiences and TV cameras for years, she messed up because she's an idiot. I laughed through her whole performance.
I didn't watch it. I'm not really a fan of sports. But everyone is human. I'm sure she's embarrassed, so let it go, people.
Yeah Joe she's an embarrassment to her generation lol. Do you even have any concept of what that might mean? Get out of your little box dude, messing up a song is not an 'embarrassment to a generation'
the whole entertainment part sucked.a train wreck.
I completely agree. Just terrible.
You said it.
I agree. When will folks learn the National Anthem is a war victory song. Not a ballad, not a pop song. The reason Whitney Houston's version is so loved, is because she sang it as a victory song, without all the extra nonsense.
yep. bring back U2. do it right. never bring back that blonde ditz.
Agree. And they had to return 400 tickets. Lowsy planning, glad the pack won though.
@ The US lost that war that the poem written during. Learn your own history.
The woman is human and I'd like to see any of you morons get up there and sing it even 50% better. And....how can ANYONE take a comment seriously from someone who refers to themselves as "snott"??? huh????
Both Aguillere and the half time show were criminally bad. Where do they get these idiots?