Pop singer Alicia Keys is promising something new and different when she performs “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Super Bowl in two weeks.
“I’m really excited about it, I can’t even lie,” Keys was quoted saying over the weekend. “I have to rehearse it totally, as if it’s a brand new song, because it is actually a brand new song in the style that I’ll deliver it. I’m actually rehearsing it like a maniac.”
The national anthem tops the list of Most Maligned Songs By Overwrought Singers.
The gruesome butchering usually occurs when a vocalist decides the already difficult melody needs 187 additional notes added.
That song has prompted more runs than a late night Taco Bell visit.
Sometimes artists seeking to put a personal stamp on the song actually deliver. Whitney Houston, Beyonce and others have given us incredible versions filled with ornamental trills.
Keys could probably nail the song just by singing it as written, but if she wants to be unique, power to her.
Just be prepared for the fallout if it sucks.
Some people get apoplectic if a singer changes or forgets the lyrics, or goes overboard on the vocal calisthenics.
Just ask Christina Aguilera Michael Bolton, Roseanne Barr, Carl Lewis, and the others on this Top 10 Worst National Anthem Performances.
