It's notoriously one of the hardest songs to sing, and knowing that you are performing it for the greatest TV audience of the year can't assist when it comes to nerves. Occasionally, just to be sure, singers pre-record
the national anthem in case some thing goes wrong during the run-up to the kickoff of the Super Bowl. Well, that some thing happened on Sunday night when Christina Aguilera blew a couple of lines of the anthem on the football telecast. Less than a minute into her rendition, Aguilera ran into some trouble. Instead of singing "O'er the ramparts we watched, had been so gallantly streaming" she improvised "What so proudly we watched at the twilight's last reaming." Ever the pro, Aguilera didn't stumble and continued on, belting out the correct lyrics all of the way through her 11-second-long note at the end of the song.
Eyewitnesses in Dallas told Popeater that the crowd at the game had a pretty dramatic reaction to the missed lines.
"This was the biggest performance of her career and she blew it," an unnamed source with a VIP view said. "To mess up the lyrics was a disaster." Another described a type of "hush" falling over the stadium as everyone looked at every other in disbelief.
Aguilera was described as being "devastated" when she went backstage after her performance.
A short time later, the mistake began to pick up steam on Twitter and prior to the game was over, the singer's Wikipedia page was updated to consist of details of her prime-time error. By Monday morning (February 7), additionally to copious headlines about the Green Bay Packers' historic win, clips of Aguilera's flub had been all over the web.
The Grammy-winning singer released a statement soon after, saying, "I can only hope that everybody could really feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through."
The lyrical fumble was unusual from Aguilera, 30, who has often carried out the national anthem honors at NBA games, including at last year's finals. "I have been performing the anthem since I was 7 years old and I must say the Super Bowl is a dream come true," Aguilera said before the game. "I am truly excited to be component of such an iconic event."
