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The Spectacle Blog
There’s no denying that when one mangles up “The Star Spangled Banner” and does so in front of a worldwide audience you are going to draw attention to yourself for all the wrong reasons.
Yet I think it’s grossly unfair to mention Christina Aguilera’s flawed rendition of our national anthem in the same breath with Roseanne Barr who intentionally dissed Francis Scott Key in San Diego more than twenty years ago.
It is worth noting that Aguilera has sung “The Star Spangled Banner” on other occasions including Game 7 of the NBA Final without incident. In fact, she’s been singing the national anthem at sporting events since she was 11-years old. So when Aguilera says she “lost her place” I believe her.
It’s not unheard of for singers to forget the lyrics to their own songs. Paul McCartney admits as much. Indeed, when I saw McCartney perform in Boston in 2005 he forgot the lyrics to “I Will”. He just stopped cold right in the middle of the song. But the former Beatle addressed the matter with good humor stating, “Well, at least you know it’s live.”
Granted, you can’t do that with “The Star Spangled Banner.” Aguilera had little other choice but to finish the song and apologize for it later. The best remedy would be if Aguilera gets a chance to sing the “Star Spangled Banner” at a big event as soon as possible (i.e. Opening Day at Fenway Park). Or perhaps she could redeem herself at Super Bowl XLVI.
In the meantime, let’s cut Christina Aguilera some slack. Besides how many singers can hold their own with Tony Bennett?
View all comments (30) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/02/07/in-defense-of-christina-aguile
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Oldefarte| 2.7.11 @ 1:10PM
Right, she can't help it if she's.....STUPID!!!!!!
Hank| 2.7.11 @ 1:16PM
I was less bothered by her forgetting the words than I was by the extreme vocal shenanigans. I'm no purist, I love the Hendrix version, but all the crazy notes in Christina's version finally crossed the line from improvisation to "Bleedy Gums Murphy from the Simpsons" style parody.
Grzmlyk| 2.7.11 @ 1:19PM
I do not begrudge her for screwing up the lyrics - it is entirely plausible.
What I cannot friggin STAND is that every last one of these baby doll pop starlets butcher the melody of the song by adding endless, superfluous and ostentatious trills such that the tune is all but unrecognizeable.
It ain't about YOU and your vocial gymnastic prowess (and such overwrought warbling always comes off as forced and inorganic in any case).
It's about showing respect for the country.
Just sing the damned song.
Leave the trills and runs and tortured, elongated syllables to your next grammy-nominated opus.
Pete| 2.7.11 @ 1:38PM
Can't agree enough.
RJ| 2.7.11 @ 3:50PM
I also fully agree. Missing the lines is one thing, but the style of singing is what I most object to.
Derek Leaberry| 2.7.11 @ 1:25PM
Worse than flubbing the lines was Miss Aguilera's pretentious over-singing of the song. But then most of the young pop female singers I hear over-sing songs instead of flat-out singing them as written. Just another sign of cultural decadence.
David W| 2.7.11 @ 1:32PM
"But then most of the young pop female singers I hear over-sing songs instead of flat-out singing them as written."
I blame American Idol. Only watched bits and pieces, but it seems that the ones who make it often do the same thing.
Grzmlyk| 2.7.11 @ 2:14PM
I believe that trend pre-dates American Idol.
I'm no expert, but, if memory serves, "Patient Zero" for this trend is Mariah Carey.
Ever since she became a platinum recording "artist," pop singers - and would-be pop singers have striven to imitate her questionable contribution to the form.
They mistake that self-aggrandizing junk for musicality.
Derek Leaberry| 2.7.11 @ 2:59PM
Exactly. Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Both have beautiful voices but waste it on bad singing.
Nunya| 2.7.11 @ 5:19PM
Reba does her fair share of the same, one of the reasons I don't listen to her.
Floyd Looney | 2.7.11 @ 1:38PM
It was bad. Not just the lyrics.
Seek| 2.7.11 @ 1:48PM
Aggressive polysyllablic trilling, a la "American Idol," is a very black trait. White singers rarely sung like that until that show's debut. Most critics of Ms. Aguilera miss that aspect -- black wannabe syndrome.
Curtis Rasmussen| 2.7.11 @ 3:26PM
'Seek| 2.7.11 @ 1:48PM
Aggressive polysyllablic trilling, a la "American Idol," is a very black trait.'
No, you can't paint the commentators here with your racist tripe. The only one you paint is yourself.
Seek| 2.7.11 @ 3:33PM
I'm not "painting" anyone. I've been listening to popular music for decades and have been a professional disk jockey. That style of vocalizing is, without question, more particular to blacks than to whites.
By the way, why do so many conservatives (like you) obsess these days over the need to display hands-off-the-blacks credentials? Why do we do the Left's dirty work by policing our own ranks, scrubbing them clean of any taint of "racism?"
southernsue| 2.7.11 @ 2:08PM
singing is her profession. she gets paid lots of money for what she does. how could she not be prepared?
i agree with the american idol syndrome, they all sound the same, screaming! also, the blackeyed peas were horrible. those voice enhancers must not work when doing live performances. who knew? trash music, don't buy this garbage, poor youth of today, no good music, all prefab.
Seek| 2.7.11 @ 2:15PM
I beg to differ. There's plenty of terrific music these days -- listen once in a while to "Little Steven's Underground Garage" radio show, syndicated nationally, to hear what I mean. Unfortunately, the best records aren't necessarily what sells the most.
Ken (Old Texican)| 2.7.11 @ 2:30PM
Okay, I will bite.
For listening music, I like country, the classics such as beethoven etc, and hymns.
Skippy| 2.7.11 @ 2:39PM
The Idol comparison is valid.
Our daughter was a voteable competitor in an early Idol year, and most of the gals sang pretty straight up.
As far as M. Carey being the progenitor of the gymnastic excesses, spot on.
It would be proper though to recall the true innovator of the melodic liberties currently overdone by everyone.
In the 60's & 70's the genius Stevie Wonder introduced said style with taste and propriety. Part of what made him unique and original.
Today's default digitized divas are clueless to the emotional potential of melody as personalized by the performer.
Ladies, you're suposed to make the song sound better, not worse.
Al Adab| 2.7.11 @ 3:07PM
Barr was despicable while Aguilera was simply incompetent. It needs to be performed straight not stylized by whomever is chosen.
MacDaddy| 2.7.11 @ 3:58PM
Perhaps she could borrow Mr. Obama's teleprompter and read the lyrics next time....or perhaps we could find a true patriot who loves the country to sing the song RIGHT!, rather than some left wing idiot who couldn't spell CAT if you spotted her a C and a T....(hat tip to the late Thomas Hollywood Henderson!)
Skippy| 2.7.11 @ 4:02PM
Only the "Hollywood" part is dead.
Mr. Henderson is alive and well in Texas enjoying a sober life with the remains of the $28,000,000 he won in the Texas Lottery in 2000.
MacDaddy| 2.7.11 @ 4:03PM
My favorite all-time sporting event rendition of the National Anthem was Marvin Gaye at the (I think) 1984 NBA All-Star game...soulful, respectful and beautiful. Next is Jose Feliciano in the 1968 World Series in Detroit. Compared to those, Christina Aguilera is a third-rate karaoke singer-wannabe who has no business being on stage at a major event. Face it, if she wasn't serious eye-candy and a casting-couch slut, she wouldn't have been there. She would never get anywhere on just her singing talent. Just one more no-talent Hollywood-hyped head case taking up good breathing air while adding no value to the planet.
Nunya| 2.7.11 @ 5:22PM
Don't hold back MacDaddy, tell us how you REALLY feel. :-)
dad29 | 2.7.11 @ 4:44PM
She recovered from the flub in a highly professional manner; good for her.
But:
I'm sick and tired of "personalized" National Anthem-singing. Rather have the guy from Chicago, who sings it so WE can sing it, too.
Wayne | 2.7.11 @ 5:04PM
Actually she wouldn't have gotten past the second round on idol because she forgot the words. But frankly that didn't bother me, nor the runs. She was just flat. He did some of the runs apparently searching for the right notes. At one point she lost the melody. She was more like one of the contestants on Idol they mock.
Here problems started by singing a-capella. It was truly unprofessional.
But the whole half-time show was a joke. It was a poor imitation of Japanese cartoon. What ever happened to just sitting on a stool with a guitar and singing? Less is more.
Blondehussy| 2.7.11 @ 5:13PM
So, she forgot a couple of the words, it happens to all of us. President Obama forgot that we do not have 57 states and no one got their panties in a twist. This is all nickel dime.
Occam's Tool| 2.7.11 @ 5:43PM
Actually, we did get upset over Obama's moronic comment. It wasn't reported.
Skippy| 2.7.11 @ 6:18PM
Perhaps O'Reilly should have interviewed her, and had O'Bama sing.
I wonder if he knows the lyrics?
Or their meaning?!
Teflon93| 2.7.11 @ 6:46PM
My God, Goldstein, you show yourself to be completely tone deaf and to have the musical taste of Wayne & Garth.
Tony Bennett is quite simply one of the greatest singers and stylists to pick up a microphone---a real singer's singer, as the admiration of Frank Sinatra might indicate.
Christina Aguilera's melisma-laden histrionics are the mark of someone who can't find or sustain the note. I didn't even notice her botching of the words at first, so awful was her singing.
Leave the melisma at home. The National Anthem is not to be warbled or yodeled, as even the country stars who perform it from time to time are well aware. They have the good taste to sing recognizable versions of the song, which, after all, is about the country, not the pretensions to talent of the singer.