National Anthem at SuperBowl Paul Losch's Community Blog, posted by Paul Losch, a resident of Palo Alto, on Feb 6, 2011 at 5:30 pm Paul Losch is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online
I really have no clue who the woman is who “sung” the Star Spangled Banner prior to the start of the game today.
I do suspect that she was making more than minimum wage to perform in front of a stadium packed with 100 thousand plus people, let alone those watching and listening worldwide. I also have the impression that she is a professional entertainer, albeit one I know nothing about.
How insulting to this country and a debasement to an annual tradition, the SuperBowl, for a highly paid entertainer to screw up our country’s national anthem in such circumstances.
Posted by Louis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 6, 2011 at 5:39 pm
She is a complete disgrace. I doubt that she ever sang the National Anthem on any regular basis. It was just another gig for her. Shameful. Dump her!!!
Better yet, boycott all the advertizers for the game...that might get the NFL's attention!
Posted by Gary, a resident of the Greater Miranda neighborhood, on Feb 6, 2011 at 7:22 pm
Oh please, paul. Try writing about important issues, not this nonsense. Do some homework before you write, I believe the performers at the support bowl do not get paid for their appearance. Insulting? A debasement?
Posted by rheyan, a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Feb 6, 2011 at 9:07 pm
You feign your ignorance regarding the name of performer (Cristina Aguilera) because to kmow it wouldn't be right for a follower of NPR or the NYT which you love to drop all the time. Please stop trying so hard to be an elitist.
Posted by Kate, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Feb 6, 2011 at 9:20 pm
The words to the National Anthem are complicated once one gets beyond Verse 1.
According to the latest 'headline news', the teleprompter mixed things up. But I agree, the National Anthem gets massacred at many athletic performances. Bring back the NYC policeman, now studying opera, who sang is repeatedly after 9/11.
Posted by Palo Parent, a resident of the Greenmeadow neighborhood, on Feb 6, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Really not trying to stir it up here but why all the negative personal comments? Just straighten out the OP's original misconceptions and move on already.
If you don't have anything nice to say . . . And no, I don't know the OP from Adam.
Posted by Anon., a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Feb 7, 2011 at 2:38 am
The idea of somehow tying in sports, Football, and patriotism, and God all in one big phone overproduced sports events where we have celebrities trying to pull 350 million people together just seems sickening to me. It's a football game ... it's not even baseball. But baseball is not even baseball anymore, the "national pastime" like all sports is full of criminals, rapists, drug users and abusers. Year after year goes by and our spectacles get bigger while our standing compared to other countries in things like education and health care continues to plummet.
I know how upset, outraged and disturbed you were by the events at the Super Bowl. Maybe this will make you feel better.
Of course you may want to ask the city council to issue a proclamation regarding this earth shattering and disturbing incident,which will surely be the talk in world capitals all week.
Posted by Louis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 7, 2011 at 12:27 pm
I think Paul is right to bring up this subject.
This ditzy entertainer should never have been put out there. She is a real mess in her personal life, apparently, and she should never have been entrusted to get our National Anthem right. The NFL needs to look into its money-making soul (OK, that is probably an oxymoron), and at least try to get back to basics. After all, many of us who watch this thing like our patriotism the old-fashioned way.
Football is a basic sport (crush the other team, and defeat them!). This ain't rocket science. The NFL corporate elite need to strap on their pads, and get back to the trenches.
Posted by Louis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 7, 2011 at 2:47 pm
"Is this an insult?"
Probably not, but a drugged-out musician has no particular sensitivity to his larger audience, just to his drugged Woodstock crew.
I would like to see a National Anthem performed for the nation, at large, not some weirded out (drugged out?) groupies. Last night was a complete disgrace.
Posted by AMR, a resident of another community, on Feb 7, 2011 at 3:11 pm
FYI, Jimi Hendrix was into drinks, not drugs.
To call a mistake that a performer makes a "complete disgrace" is a little bit off the deep end. What if it was Clint Black who made the mistake. Or Andrea Bocelli?
It's more than obvious that her intention was not to insult anybody. If you're insulted, that's your fault, not hers.
Posted by Alfred E Newman, a resident of Atherton, on Feb 7, 2011 at 4:28 pm
"FYI, Jimi Hendrix was into drinks, not drugs"
Ummm, and Purple Haze was about a drink with Chambord?
You can argue all you want about the song, at least it proves they don't pre-record it anymore.
But that advertising!!! My (gay) friend was HOWLING at the various crude puns and double entendres in all those ads, we couldn't believe how awful it was. Re-watch them. It's more than the Mini ad "can you cram it into my boot" and the Dorito guy sucking another's finger.
I was appalled. And hey, think how bad it had to be to reach my level of the absurd...
;-)
Best ad from a branding perspective: The Audi snobs escape from prison ad. And Kenny G has a sense of humor.
Posted by Louis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 7, 2011 at 5:26 pm
"What if it was Clint Black who made the mistake. Or Andrea Bocelli?"
They would have practiced the song, before they got up there, in that setting, and they would not have let personal issues get in the way. The ditz who was up there last night was completely out of her league. So is the NFL.
Boycott the advertizers! Maybe the NFL will get the message.
Posted by pat, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 7, 2011 at 6:04 pm
The National Anthem is EVERY citizen’s anthem. Who gets to decide the proper rendition?
“An Indiana school district that told a black teenager to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" in a "traditional way" after receiving complaints about her performance is drawing questions now about whether the complaints and directive were racially motivated.” Web Link
If you want to be insulted or appalled, go rent “Inside Job” or “The Tillman Story.”
Posted by Ponder, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Feb 7, 2011 at 6:53 pm
The melody of the anthem started off as a drinking song from the pubs of London (with rathy bawdy lyrics). Yesterday's version sounded as if it still was a drinking song by a drunk in a pub.
Posted by Gary, a resident of the Greater Miranda neighborhood, on Feb 7, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Someone needs to calm louis down. I believe someone else posted a link of the singer performing the anthem write nicely at two NBA games. Calling her a ditz and a druggie serves no useful purpose. The anthem is nice but it Is a refuge of sunshine patriots who feel that singing the anthem means they have done something for our country.
Posted by Norm, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 8, 2011 at 4:20 pm
Not ultra-relevant to the aim of this thread, but........
For Alfred E Newman, Purple Haze was written by Bob Dylan as was All Along the Watchtower. And the tune for our anthem (NOT officially regarded as such until well after the Civil War) was lifted from a British drinking song.
Posted by Observer, a resident of the South of Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 8, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Even professionals get nervous. This performer performed a challenging rendition of the song, and clearly had practiced. I've had to perform in front of people and no matter how prepared you are, sometimes the words just come out wrong. Like a true professional, she finished the song with dignity. If she had been wasted or grabbed her crotch or something, I can see feeling insulted, but she did not. She gave a spirited performance of an arrangement that is challenging and complex, and made a small mistake with the lyrics. The performance I found insulting was that of the Black Eyed Peas, not one of whom demonstrated a scrap of talent.
Posted by Alfred E Newman, a resident of Atherton, on Feb 8, 2011 at 5:22 pm
""Purple Haze" is a song written in 1966 and recorded in 1967 by The Jimi Hendrix Experience and released as a single (Hendrix's second) in both the United Kingdom and the United States."
Posted by Darwin, a resident of another community, on Feb 8, 2011 at 6:46 pm
Wow! You get all warm and fuzzy over your daughter's lame quidditch game, yet you feign ignorance over one of the most successful recording artists over the past decade? Get over yourself please.
She made a mistake. Happens all the time during national anthems.
Posted by Huxley, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Feb 9, 2011 at 9:18 am
There's a great American Flag display at the Smithsonian with Jimi Hedndrix's rendition of the anthem playing in the background. If you don't tear up when you hear it, you ain't American... or probably Palo Altan
Posted by Observer, a resident of another community, on Feb 9, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Yes, she flubbed the National Anthem. And, she apologized. Ms. Aguilera has performed the Anthem at large events ever since she was a little girl. As a child she sang the Anthem at the Stanley Cup finals in Pittsburgh. She also provides significant support for charities, including a battered womens' shelter that she sponsored along with Bill Cowher's late wife. She is NOT a bad person. She just made a mistake.
Posted by Andy Daniel, a resident of the Fairmeadow neighborhood, on Feb 10, 2011 at 4:48 pm
I'm surprised that so many people (not just on this site) are posting about how her performance was an insult to America. She simply made a mistake under pressure. She wasn't trying to be offensive, as was Roseanne Barr a few years back. She's an experienced professional singer and it was a mistake - certainly an embarassing one - plain and simple.
Posted by sharin, a resident of the Charleston Gardens neighborhood, on Feb 10, 2011 at 8:44 pm
Christina Aguilera gives a whole new meaning to the word..."Twit" why they chose her to sing the anthem, we will never know. What a travesty. Glad I was out hiking and didnt waste my time watching the Superbowl. I can't take the massive onslaught of stupid commercials....what a waste of time!
Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 11, 2011 at 8:32 am Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online
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I really have no clue who the woman is who “sung” the Star Spangled Banner prior to the start of the game today.
