I was sitting at a sports bar in the Sacramento airport when Christina Aguilera botched the lyrics to the National Anthem.
In all fairness, the Star Spangled Banner is probably one of the hardest songs to sing. Just picking the right key to finish the song without embarrasment is enough of a task, let alone singing in "a capella" nakedness in front of millions of people (169.2 million according to Nielsen Television Ratings).
It wasn't until the 4th line that the singing pop star tripped over her words. Superbowl XLV was just starting to crown as the Announcer spoke,
"And now, to honor America: 5 time grammy award winner, Christina Aguilera..."
Aguilera began strong,
"O say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight
what so proudly we watched at the twilight's last gleaming?"
Miss Aguilera forgot the line about the ramparts gallantly streaming and instead sang of proudly watching the twilight's last gleaming... again.
I laughed out loud and quickly realized no one around me was laughing. You'd think California's State Capitol would be a good place to find people that know our Nation's anthem.. apparently not. Someone did, however, manage to shoot me a death-stare for laughing during the anthem.
I should have given Christina more credit for continuing on and belting out the notes she did in the latter part of the song. She clearly showed character and was seemingly "saucing it up" to make up for her earlier mistake.
Instead, I immediately changed my facebook status: "national anthem lyrics re-written.. thank you christina aguilera"
Forgiveable? Yes. Lord knows I've felt like the horse's patoot many times before. But if it were me, I'd like to think those lyrics would be etched in my brain before singing. There are lots of things you can't control: wind.. rain.. storms.. pigeon's crapping on you (just ask Kings of Leon), but memorizing lyrics is something you can.
I bet those lyrics are burned in her brain now... but hindsight is, well, you know.
Check out her performance below:
