NFLVideo

The National Anthem Before Packers-Lions Did Not Go Especially Smoothly

by Glenn Davis | 1:37 pm, November 24th, 2011

OK, so as national anthem flubs go, this one wasn’t that bad. But when Lauren Alaina (of American Idol fame) sang a wrong word of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before today’s Lions-Packers game (at the :47 mark below) and followed it with an awkward pause, it was still enough that this turned into a thing.

We don’t believe she forgot the words, as some charged: we think she just threw herself off when she sang “through the twilight’s last gleaming” instead of “at the twilight’s last gleaming,” realized that was wrong, and didn’t quite know how to go about fixing it. Thankfully, she recovered after those few tough seconds, finished pretty strong, and got herself a nice ovation from the Ford Field crowd. How bad was the mistake? Judge for yourself below (video by @jose3030). Also keep an eye out for the always-horrifying red contacts worn by the Lions’ Kyle Vanden Bosch, most prominent at the 1:19 mark.

Geester

Just who is Jose?
Anonymous

Seemed to me that it threw off her timing. Not a horrific recovery and far from the worst performance of the National Anthem, I think that “honor” still belongs squarely with Roseanne Barr.
JSmith76248

Her short career is done.
Anonymous

Packers thumped the Lions.
Anonymous

I didn’t think it was that bad. She should have just kept on going. But, her voice is beautiful nonetheless.
Anonymous

Make sure you watch Carl Lewis, too!
Anonymous

She recovered well enough. It could have been worse…
bumsrush

Botching a word wasn’t as bad as her annnoying effort to sound “country” at the expense of genuine singing.
bumsrush

She’s got the country cliche style down pat.
bumsrush

If she would just sing and not worry about sounding “country,” we’d all be better off.
bumsrush

You’re right. She could have been clubbed in the face by a deranged fan.
bumsrush

She was just emulating Christina Aguilera. Congress is expected to conduct hearings on whether blondes should be forbidden from singing our sacred anthem.
barbara

jealous are you? can u do it as well as she did? she’s amazing!
doug daluga

who?
http://twitter.com/lizmckenzie55 Liz McKenzie

She is as country as they get. Obviously, you do not know who she is.
http://twitter.com/lizmckenzie55 Liz McKenzie

She is country so get over it already.
http://twitter.com/lizmckenzie55 Liz McKenzie

Didn’t watch the video, huh? If you had, you would know who she is. D’oh!
ya

bumsrush and Liz McKenzie need to hook up.
no longer confused

With all the botching of our National Anthem lately, I think it is time to only allow military choruses to sing it. They NEVER get it wrong. Virtually everyone who sings it takes liberties with it by adding extra notes and trilling. just sing it the way it was written and honor our heritage and these embarrassing moments will stop..
sing it right for a change

She still sang it incorrectly. Most who sing it add extra notes in the “banner yet waves’ part. Maybe these singers need to be tutored before they are allowed to sing it.
Anonymous

“sounding country”….. Why? Because of her accent?
Blue123

Stop “over souling” and it will probably sound a hell of a lot better. Most female singers think they have to use vocal gymnastics instead of just singing pure melody. NOT!!
Anonymous

Fact: I am surprised she made it as far as she did with the
public school union education. Today’s schools don’t honor the flag and what it
stands for since we are over ran by liberal socialist!!!
vernon willis

You can’t sing it the way it was written. You would have to speak it since Francis Scott Key wrote it as a poem, not a song. It was later set to the tune of a British drinking song called To Anacreon in Heaven.
vernon willis

How do you know where she went to school?
Laurence Glavin

Nice recovery and except for the melismas, roulades and such as, close to being on-pitch in the upper tessitura. Still better than the screechifier who, um “sang” the N.A. at the most recent Repub debate (the one during which Rick Santorum called Africa a country).
goonboy

VandenBosch’s red colored contacts make him look like an evil, crazy dude, which is how he plays.
Anonymous

Like most young people I bet she can’t tell you what a rampart is either…….It’s the extra notes so many put into the song that makes me want to cry. If they can’t sing it right, then they shouldn’t try.
Anonymous

AT some point we have to accept the National Anthem is a nightmare song to sing.

Her voice was great.
Anonymous

Maybe her vocal coach was Rick Perry!
Guest

And if she went to a charter school in Texas? Oops, there goes your whack job ideal!!!!