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Whitney Houston’s Super Bowl National Anthem Is Still The Benchmark For All Others

by Glenn Davis | 10:31 am, February 12th, 2012

Singer Whitney Houston died yesterday of an as-yet undetermined cause at the Beverly Hilton hotel in California. She was 48. Unfortunately, much of what she’ll be remembered for involves turmoil in her personal life – including drug use and a rocky marriage to R&B artist Bobby Brown – but she was a vocal talent with few peers. This was never more apparent than before Super Bowl XXV in 1991. Houston sang the national anthem. America was embroiled in the Persian Gulf War, so an especially large number of eyes and ears were focused on the anthem. A flop would have been infamous forever. Here’s what Houston did:

And over two decades later, it’s still the gold standard. There was one comment on the above video’s Youtube page (yeah, we know, Youtube comment, but bear with us) that went a long way toward summing up why: it was the smile Or, more accurately, the smile in addition to hitting every note perfectly and with power. It made it look like she wasn’t straining in the least to perform this magnificent rendition of the anthem. It made it look like she was doing what she was born to do…and there’s little doubt she was.

http://twitter.com/john_wareham John Wareham

Too bad it wasn’t live
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6NVQXKGM4GSM6RZ7ZW3BQ2D73I Kim

My friend just met a chocolate man on Blackwhitemeet.COMit’s where for men and women looking for interracial’ship for a fabulous lifestyle
It’s a nice place for black white sing’les, to interact with each other…no bounds or extremes in front of true love.
Dudedudedude

How wasn’t it live?
Screwbit

I still get chills listening to that. Fantastic !! And my G-Men won the game, too !!
CJ

It was recorded before the game, however she apparently was really singing, just to a dead mic while the recorded song went over the speakers, that’s why it didn’t look fake.
Deniece Thomas

Such a great talent that has come through this generation. Her voice will be the template of perfection for a long time to come.
Rmq2

Ok, but what’s your point? It’s still one of the greatest performances of the national anthem of all time.
http://profile.yahoo.com/NYZ6R7HTH7W43XKDEEYFPDNZLE Kim

My friend just met a chocolate man on Blackwhitemeet.COMit’s where for men and women looking for interracial’ship for a fabulous lifestyleIt’s a nice place for black white sing’les, to interact with each other…no bounds or extremes in front of true love.
http://profile.yahoo.com/NYZ6R7HTH7W43XKDEEYFPDNZLE Kim

My friend just met a chocolate man on Blackwhitemeet.COMit’s where for men and women looking for interracial’ship for a fabulous lifestyleIt’s a nice place for black white sing’les, to interact with each other…no bounds or extremes in front of true love.

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