I think Capitaine meant two teams of the same nationality.
Am I a child for laughing my ass off at that?
I also don’t care if people put their own spin on the national anthem. If they sing it well, who cares if they didn’t follow the standard unwaveringly? People have added their own personal variations in the past, some of whom quite damn well. Christina’s version was bad, though, but I already fully expected her to go full on American Idol with it, because that’s just how she sings, so no surprise or disappointment there. The flubbing of the lyrics was bad, but if I’m in a charitable mood, forgivable. That weave, however: unacceptable.
I applaud every mistake and overindulgence engaged in by anthem singers at athletic events. There is absolutely no good reason for the national anthem to be part of a private, commercial entertainment presentation. I want the singers to get worse and worse and worse and more and more obnoxious, just to punish the morons who insist on having it. I fantasize that it will get so bad that everyone will just give up on it.
But then we might forget where the Super Bowl is played!
Oh, i guess you’re right.
In that case, the answer is no.
This. I am impressed with the voices of Aguilera and Carey, no doubt. But I don’t find them pleasurable to listen to at all. Hitting a note and holding it is much, much more pleasurable to listen to for me than the “radio tuning” described in that quote. Carey also is able to do this thing, it shows up in an older song of hers… something like “You’ve Got Me Feeling Emotion”. Anyway, she hits this insanely high note and melismas all over it, and I think “Wow, how few people in the world can do that?” but mostly I think “Dear Lord it sounds like a dog whistle”.
I don’t blame any of the pop superstars for singing the national anthem like this, though. I hate it but I know that they were hired to do just what they are doing. Forgetting the lyrics is less forgivable, though. This isn’t Miss Aguilera’s first time at the rodeo.
The words are archaic and the song practically unsingable. It is rare to find a person who can sing it passably.Even opera singers leave you dissatisfied.
So we have a sport before the game. Who is going to fuck it up this time.
I don’t buy the pressure argument. They generally are professional singers who sing in front of large audiences or on TV for a living. They should have no trouble with the pressure at all.
My favorites were Jose Feliciano and Rozanne Barr. Why do people take it so seriously?
If I recall, when we’re playing a Canadian baseball team in Canada we play the Canadian anthem. So maybe there’s something to that “remind them what country they’re in” thing.
Hey, it’s just a national custom at this point, like British tea time and people who eat lutefisk - seriously, who willingly eats fish soaked in lye solution? But hey, it’s a custom, it may not make any sense in this day and age, but whatever. A lot about the Super Bowl is actually highly ritualized at this point. I’m old enough to remember when there was considerably less hoopla around it.
I managed to avoid the entire circus simply by leaving the TV turned off.
I normally don’t like people singing the anthem because they do it so poorly.
However, I love Marvin Gaye. That was something special right there. I’ve never heard the crowd clap along like that.
I rather like it as a herald of getting-down-to-business. It sets before-the-game apart from the game. Of course it’s not quite that in big-production events like the Super Bowl, where the game doesn’t start immediately following.
Indeed, it does (make sense). But it’s also interesting to note that, in Europe, National Anthems are no longer played prior to matches between teams from different countries – events adopt some sort of theme song, and that, in turn, supercedes the National Anthems. For instance, here’s Uefa Champions League Anthem. Again, I think that makes a lot of sense, since club teams (as in the US) are made up of players from any number of countries.
Because its a WAR song and football is WAR!
I’ll add that at NHL hockey games in Canada, when the game is between an American team and a Canadian team, it is normal to play the American anthem and the Canadian anthem before the game.
You’d probably hear it at international matches here, but not anywhere else. The custom of playing it at the end of the movies died out sometime around 1970 and as for other social occasions, no.
Heh - I linked that song in the other thread, too, because it was such a stand-out performance.
It’s an unusual day when I’m watching a hockey or lacrosse game and we play ONLY the Canadian anthem at the Saddledome - it’s always US anthem first, then Canadian anthem. Which I make a point of singing along to, mind you.
What a horrible rendition of our National Anthem. Hope they get someone who can sing next year.
They should have stuck with Enrico Palazzo.
I wish they’d just pipe it in from the same pre-recording every time.
I think it’s amusing to go to pro hockey games in the States, ones that involve two American teams. NHL teams being much more international than, say, NBA teams, the anthem starts up and I’m looking at both benches, thinking “Norwegian, Canadian, Russian, Canadian, Slovakian, Russian, Swede… oh there’s the third string goalie, I think he’s from Minnesota”.
Back to the subject, I also think that maybe it’s worth pointing out that Ms Aguilera’s career isn’t what it once was, and this lyrical accident has really extended the news cycle beyond just “Christina Aguilera sings the anthem at the Super Bowl”. Any publicity is good publicity, right? And wardrobe malfunctions are *so *overdone.