As everyone knows by now, Christina Aguilera booted the words to the National Anthem to open the Super Bowl. Whatever. My beef with her is how she sang it (i.e., badly and self-indulgently), not that she messed up the words, which honestly could happen to anyone. Here’s an interesting commentary on that subject.
Anyway, the Globe thought it would be fun to pile on by including Aguilera’s screw-up in the “Quotes of Note” that it publishes on the op-ed page (though not, apparently, in the online version).
But – oopsie, that’s not what she actually sang. As a review of the very popular video of her “performance” shows, what she actually sang was “Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, what so proudly we watched, at the twilight’s last reaming.” Her mistake was leaving out the “O’er the ramparts” line that the Globe included.
Schadenfreude is a dangerous thing. Mock Aguilera if you want – but get it right, lest ye be mocked.
Asking when did the national anthem become a pop singer’s vehicle to overly stylize. It happened with Whitney Houston’s 1991 Super Bowl performance of the song…which convinced a lot of people not nearly as talented as Houston that they were able to do the same thing.
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p>I’ll confess to a liking for Marvin Gaye’s 1983 take.
Enrico Palazzo was the last great singer of the national anthem.
is the upcoming final title in a certain collection of vampire novels. [rimshot]
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p>”Thank you! I’ll be here all week!”