Posted on 02/09/2025 4:52:45 PM PST by dennisw
The UK Daily Mail covered this on their front page: --- Fans slam Jon Batiste's 'shameful' rendition of the national anthem at Super Bowl 2025 ---
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nfl/article-14378841/Fans-slam-Jon-Batistes-shameful-rendition-national-anthem-Super-Bowl.html
So I went to the video to see for myself. Bring back Kate Smith!
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
I liked it. I prefer a truly traditional version, but I thought this one was really good for what it was: a totally different song. I liked Batiste’s version much better than the ones with all the warbling and injected vocal runs.
I liked it, too! You and I seem to be in the minority, lol.
Every small town fireworks has some local girl who has to jazz it up.
And why is our national anthem a solo show-off performance? Let’s sing it together, straight.
Even I, albeit in my own key, can sing the national anthem.
I listened. Horrific rendition. Anyone who knows the history of that song when Frances Scott Keys wrote it and under what conditions would NEVER sing it with a grin in a jazzy fashion. Shameful. This song is NOT subject to interpretation. It is our soul as a people.
And he went a little flat on the final note. I wonder if that was nerves?
People should just sing it straight. That’s one song that should not be about the singer; it’s all about the song.
Yup, heartwood. I agree.
I was raised in the Methodist Church. We don’t sing good, but we do sing loud. And, in our own key, too.
The Anthem doesn’t need ‘interpretation’. It needs to be felt.
Or maybe Louise Homer, who sang my favorite version.
I’d like to have heard it.
NFL starts with the so called black national anthem. They have not changed.
That version should only be played before dice or domino games held in back alleys. His high notes make the anthem sound feminine.
Get your hearing checked.
“ Get your hearing checked”
Hearing is fine. World class. None better. Beautiful hearing
YES!
I thought the way it was written was the way it is supposed to be sung!
The original CANNOT BE IMPROVED UPON!
Everyone can stop bellyaching. It was fine. Wasn’t perfect. Put a jazz spin on it. It was fine.
Well, it’s New Orleans. To at least some degree, as long as it’s tasteful, when in Rome...
The counter-argument is that this is a NATIONAL event. And, what would the paying fans prefer?
I went back and found the pre-game rendition of America The Beautiful, by Lauren Diagle. If one is gonna add a lot of their own “interpretation”, well, I like hers better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hptioYZXFeU
It really would be nice if some teams tried having the artist(s) encourage the crowd to sing along to the traditional arrangement. They could even have some fun with it, with the singer / band pausing a couple lines in if the crowd is “weak”, to exhort / cajole them to do better.
I don’t know about this but I do like when Ray Charles sang America the Beautiful.
Lauren Daigle and Trombone Shorty were also EXCELLENT singing and playing "America the Beautiful"
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