Wednesday, Oct. 06, 2010

Christina Aguilera

Turns out, there's a reason some singers choose to prerecord "The Star-Spangled Banner" and lip-sync their way through the "live" performance. In Christina Aguilera's rendition at the 2011 Super Bowl, it wasn't the song's notoriously high notes that gave her trouble, but rather its quaint 19th century phraseology. While Aguilera deserves credit for choosing to sing the song live in front of millions of people, there's little excuse for forgetting the words to the beloved, oft-performed anthem. Instead of singing, "O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming," Aguilera inserted the line, "What so proudly we watched at the twilight's last reaming." The songstress was described as "devastated" after her performance, and issued the following statement: "I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through."