How Many Professional Singers Does it take to Screw Up the National Anthem?

[captaincranky]

I"m of course talking about "The Star Spangled Banner".

I'm going to answer my own question by saying, "only one, the person whomever is singing it sat the Superbowl on any given year".

This year it was Demi Lovado's turn. It always seems like the pros are hunting for the pitch by injecting an abnormal amount of vibrato C'mon people, any anthem is supposed to be sung with trancendent smoothness. It's not friggin' opera for god's sake, You never hear a bunch of warbling coming out of the string section, or anywhere else in the orchestra for that matter.

My vote for next year's singer is the 9 year old (probably 10 by now), Reina Ozby:

Here, see what you think:

Compare that with Christina Aguilera's butchery:

 

[cliffordcooley]

All I can say is you don't want to hear me sing the song (any song).

 

[captaincranky]

All I can say is you don't want to hear me sing the song (any song).

Are you kidding? They made me mouth the words at my 6th grade graduation ceremony. I've been trying to live it down ever since.

 

[CharmsD]

I tried it and failed, it was embarrassing. My vote is for a New York girl, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta.

 

[captaincranky]

I tried it and failed, it was embarrassing. My vote is for a New York girl, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta....[ ]....

I've always recognized Gaga's abundant talent, although many people don't. They're too caught up in the glitz and hype to see what's underneath, an extremely gifted performer. Then too, there's the obvious comparisons which are made to Madonna's road show.

Gaga did get off a couple of "eye-ee-ayes", and an incidental ""whoa-ee yo", but that notwithstanding, the power of her vocal was awesome.

One thing female singers do in the anthem that always boggles my mind, is essentially sing their own high harmony part on, "land of the 'free'", which is already the highest note in the basic melody. I think they're pulling it up a 5th, but I have to crack out a guitar just to make sure it's not a full octave. (My ear for interval isn't anywhere near the best).

The one salient thing she did which makes complete and total sense, is to use her own pianist, and not attempt the damned thing acapella! The result, pitch perfect.

This version has quite a bit of merit as well: