How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
1. Remember the words. This is a live event so there are no re-takes or overdubs.
2. If you have to show off your singing ability, don't do it at the expense of the song. Inserting extra notes and elisions that take listeners up, down, around, over and under for no musical point gives them no musical satisfaction. Left musically unresolved, the audience will conclude you are just showing off your vocal chops.
3. Don't change the melody. There have been lots of singers who change a note or two of this well known anthem and play with it to make it sound fresh. Sometimes this comes as a nice surprise to the listener if it is well done, but this is very tricky territory since the song is so well known. In this case, the singer did this so much she actually changed the melody.
Summary: Don't forget the lyrics, don't change the melody and don't show off.
Thanks to Ricochet member Jimmy Carter, here is how it is done:
To be fair to Christina, Whitney pre-recorded this and she is lip syncing, but in this kind of situation it may just be the way to go.
UPDATE: Songwriter adds:
I watched the Super Bowl with three other professional musicians. We were all laughing because Ms. Aguilara's performance was so like the parody done on SNL by Maya Rudolph.
Check it out.
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Jan '11
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
On American Idol, they urge singers to "make it their own." To advance, singers have to perform a well-known song in an unusual way. But ... this is an anthem. The national anthem. The whole point is that we all sing. If you flutter off into self-adoration, you leave us behind.
OK, this is a pet peeve. Our local parish has a priest who makes the Mass "his own." Instead of just saying the words of common prayers, so that the rest of us can join in and be part of a community, this priest constantly stops leading prayer to deliver mini-lectures. When he does it, he swoons, as if he's been captured by the Spirit or the angels hovering above him. It's a private joke now: "Look, hon, the angels have got him again..." Twelve years of this nonsense.
Leading a community means you don't wing it, or "make it your own." Singers are supposed to lead the national anthem, not hijack it.
Dec '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
We were watching the penultimate football game, pitting the top two PROFESSIONAL teams against each other for the championship. Singing the national anthem was a PROFESSIONAL singer, someone who has been around for a while and says that she has been singing it since she was 7. It was not a 5th grader singing at a high school game.
Yes, professional athletes make mistakes (fumbles, interceptions, missed tackels, etc.) but when the mistakes are a result of their own showboating, they are subject to massive derision.
The same derision should be directed towards Ms. Aguilera.
Sep '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
I'm with you KC, you are talking to a guy who cringed at Mass in English and guitar Mass - and I play guitar! There is a lot of spiritual value in ritual. Everything doesn't have to be immediately accessible and culturally up-to-date.
Jun '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
Wow, I missed that live. How awful! Too bad one of the players didn't rush her and tackle her to the ground.
I remember when my daughter used to sing the anthem at the local minor league baseball games they hung up a cartoon at the tryouts about there being no need to "funkify" the song. Good singers know how to subltly adjust phrasing to make a familiar song special. Aguilera always sounds like she is doing warm-up vocal exercises that have no connection to the lyrics. Boooooooo........
Jan '11
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
Must restrain self, since Ritual is one of my favorite topics. But let me ask: what rituals do we still have, as a society?
I rue the disappearance of ritual. Tailgating & football, OK, maybe there's one. But not many others. Parades? Festivals? Even town hall meetings are likely on the way out, since all non-Tea Party politicians are terrified of them.
What do we all actually do together? Every parent knows, if the family doesn't do anything together, it withers as a family. And as a nation, it's not that we have to spend every waking moment together. But we ought to have an occasional ritual or two, don't you think?
Edited on Feb 7, 2011 at 6:02amAug '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
I watched the Super Bowl with three other professional musicians. We were all laughing because Ms. Aguilara's performance was so like the parody done on SNL by Maya Rudolph.
Check it out. It's almost as funny as Aguilara's, which, ironically wasn't intended to be funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImCWjbAOXKo
Jun '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
Sing it proudly, sing it triumphantly, and sing it right!
Jul '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
Re: Whitney Houston. That would be the best lip sync in all of history.
Jul '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
I don't know or care if Whitney Houston was lip-synching. I was too busy weeping like a baby.
Jun '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
Maya Rudolph's mom was Minnie Ripperton.
May '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
Straight from the Super Bowl!
Miss Christina Aguilera!
Now at the Robert Goulet Dinner Theater....
Sep '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
Wow. Well I guess that accounts for her vocal talent here...
StickerShock: Wow, I missed that live. How awful! Too bad one of the players didn't rush her and tackle her to the ground.
. · Feb 7 at 5:50am
That woulda been funny!
Or a referee comes by and throws a flag... too many notes on the field? ... delay of game?
Oct '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
Franco... you presume musical talent and self confidence, and more than a modicum of humility, is available in the show biz talent pool. Lotsa luck.
Dec '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
Songs are no longer sung. They are wrestled to the ground and bludgeoned into submission.
Jul '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
Just watched the Whitney clip again. That woman obviously loves America and took joy in what she was doing.
God bless her. Here's hoping she overcomes her tribulations.
Nov '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
The first thing that popped into my head was "Hey! It's Enrico Palazzo!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MIr-S6mwFk
Nov '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
It was apparent that she was far more concerned about her trademark, torturously extraneous vocal undulations, than to the words of the song.
I can’t stand embellishments to the Star Spangled Banner...you can’t sing along. You can’t even follow along, in her case.
We’ll never have to experience her again. She saw to that. You have to admit...it’s a pretty simple tune to screw up.
Jul '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
I've always hated vibrato, but I never realized until now that it's un-American.
Feb '11
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
Too many notes!
Dec '10
Re: How Not to Sing Our National Anthem
Please can we have the guy who belts out the national anthem at the Chicago Blackhawks games? Something you can sing along with?
When you have a pop tart up there squealing 'it's all about me!' it's impossible to feel part of the action.
As my sister in England said (she stayed up all night to watch the Stillers lose . . .)--"where is Kate Smith when you need her?"
Wrong song, but right sentiment, methinks.