Local singers 'embarrassed' for Aguilera
Everyone knows it's an extremely difficult song to sing, but those who regularly perform the national anthem found it painful to watch — and listen to — Christina Aguilera overdo the famous song with vocal gymnastics and then stumble over the lyrics during Sunday's Super Bowl.
Instead of singing, “O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming,” Aguilera sang, “What so proudly we watched at the twilight's last reaming.”
“She, unfortunately, got caught up in her own moment,” said Wayne Messmer, who estimates he's sung the anthem more than 3,000 times before Chicago Cubs and Chicago Wolves games and can't recall botching the words once. “I'm embarrassed for her. She has fabulous talent. If she would have done it straight, it would have been magnificent.”
Aguilera immediately apologized for the flub, saying she “lost her place,” but the mistake will be a permanent blemish on her otherwise impressive career. The Grammy Award-winning pop singer already has been added to “worst anthem” lists alongside people like Roseanne Barr, who purposely whined the anthem at a 1990 San Diego Padres game, and Michael Bolton, who did a cringe-worthy version at Fenway Park in Boston.
Whitney Houston's version of the anthem before the 1991 Super Bowl, however, was so memorable it actually cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard charts that year.
Immediately after Aguilera's performance, the critics pounced. One Sports Illustrated writer questioned if they could take away her Grammys. To add salt to the wound, Sunday's Super Bowl was the most watched TV show in history, averaging 111 million viewers.
“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 said in a statement.
Naperville's Gina Glocksen, the former “American Idol” finalist who frequently sings the national anthem at Chicago White Sox games, had mixed feelings about Aguilera's performance. On one hand, she felt sorry for her, but also thought a seasoned veteran like Aguilera shouldn't blow the lyrics or mess with such an important song.
“I can completely understand how that happened,” Glocksen said. “But don't mess up the original. People love the song. And it's disrespectful to the writer, the soldiers ... to everyone. It's the anthem.”
While Glocksen said she's never botched the lyrics, she believes what happened to Aguilera could happen to anyone, including her.
“Next time I sing it ... I'll carry a picture of her in my pocket. Or I'll pray to the national anthem gods or something,” Glocksen said with a laugh.
Messmer says the anthem spans a 1¼-octave range, and most people have only a six-note singing range. That's why people sing along softly from the stands and wouldn't dare sing it into a microphone before millions of people.
“It's not (a song) for everyone,” Messmer said, “and that was never more apparent than yesterday.”
Ÿ The Associated Press contributed to this report.