Alicia Keys will sing The National Anthem on Super Bowl Sunday, she says it will be totally different. I guess we will have to wait and see how totally different she means. I do hope she does not change the Lyrics.
I have mixed feelings about this. If you have ever visited The Smithstonian, you have seen the exibit where they give a history of Francis Scott Key's poem and how it was made into The National Anthem. Also, you can here the different musical adaptations through the years. What we sing now, (the tune), is quite different from what has been sung in the past.
We have all seen the Anthem done to perfection, and done to horror. I suppose the worst rendition I ever saw was when Carl Lewis, the great Olympian, sang it. Somebody should have told him that this was not a good idea.
One of the best I can rememeber was Meat Loaf. He did the song proud. He sung it in a key that wade that note on "free" in the end a high A#
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=...ail&FORM=VIRE1
The biggest change that I can remember was when Whitney Houston did the Anthem in 4/4 time rather than the 3/4 that we all have become accustom too. I really prefer the 4/4 time version better. Or maybe I just liked the way she did it.
What ever Miss Keys does with it, I do hope that she does it in a manner that honors our Country and gives all in the audience a sense of what it means to be an American.
http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=786266