The star spangled disaster

It seems that no Superbowl can pass without controversy. This year the spotlight is on Christina Aguilera, who botched the lyrics to the national anthem.

She should know better really – Rosanne Barr is still criticised for her 1990 performance of the Star Spangled Banner after all. I’m from a country where the anthem is kept short and simple (God save our gracious Queen/long live our noble Queen/God save the Queen), so I can sympathise with Aguilera – I’d certainly find it tough to remember all these words under pressure.

My sympathy deepened when I looked up the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner:

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Yep, that’s a lot more complicated than “God save the Queen”! Aguilera has been widely criticised for singing “What so proudly we watched at the twilight’s last reaming” instead of the real line “O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming” and has issued a statement saying she hoped “the true spirit of the anthem still came through”.

What do you think of Aguilera’s blunder? Can you always remember all the correct lyrics, and in the right order?