Kristin Chenoweth, the long-time Broadway soprano who has won accolades for, among other triumphs, her performance as Glinda in “Wicked, has been getting flamed on social media and elsewhere for her performance of “The Star Spangled Banner” before the NBA’s Championship Finals.
Another performing soprano I know and trust was horrified at Kristin’s rendition, writing me, “She needs to be put out to pasture for this. There’s not a single redeeming quality about it. I can’t believe how amateur her technique and choices are. Shameful and disappointing. I used to think she was talented. Now I just think she’s made a career out of being a hack.”
To be fair, my musician friend has high standards, and much of what she found to be as fingernails on a blackboard would not register at all with most listeners. I am one of those who loves the National Anthem, which I hold to be far, far more inspiring and musically stirring than “Oh Beautiful,” “Good Bless America,” “This Land is Your Land” and all the other inferior patriotic ballads various critics pronounce as candidates to take its place. Sure, it’s hard to sing, but I can sing it (though not well), and the quality of an anthem isn’t in how easy it may be for non-singers to stumble through it: the greatest national anthem of them all, the “La Marseillaise,” is at least as challenging as ours.
I do not mark down singers who crash and burn singing the Anthem because they forget the words (Robert Goulet holds the all time title for that) or get disoriented because singing in a stadium with a microphone adds to the challenge. I do fault performers who presume to solo with the song in public when their skills are not sufficient to pull it off (Hello, Rosanne!), because “know your limitations” is a life competence ethics rule. It is especially a critical principle for performers.
However, the real ethics breaches in National Antheming comes when singers make terrible choices, butchering the song intentionally for the sake of their own narcissism. They make the performance about them rather than the National Anthem itself and the nation it honors.
That was Chenoweth’s sin. The explanation of why other choices she made were wrong may be too technical for most readers, but the main breach was that interminable note Kristin held on “free.” Holding the note a bit for dramatic effect is a common feature of renditions of the Anthem, but what Chenoweth was doing is grandstanding, making the National Anthem about her. She was saying “Look at me! Even though I am an aging soprano, I still got it, baby! Listen, here’s a super-high note that has nothing to do with the song!”
She might as well have stopped mid-song and interjected “Glitter and Be Gay.”
That was so annoying that I have to clear my National Anthem palate: Here’s the late Whitney Houston at the Super Bowl in 1991, knocking the National Anthem out of the park and making us realize what a stirring thing it can be when performed with skill and respect:
Ethics Alarms 
I have asked before and I will ask again: how many other nations have tolerated self-indulgent butcherings of their anthems? I suspect not many, and it is my understanding that the guillotine was created because an unfortunate mezzosoprano mistakenly sung (sang?) a b-flat instead of an a-sharp in the second line of the fourth stanza. Poor fellow. He had the flu, by the way – still, the French take their anthem seriously. As well they should. Grandstanding will not and must not be tolerated. Sing it as written or suffer the consequences.
As for Kristin Chenoweth: yeah, it’s not my snifter of single malt scotch but it is hardly horrendous. Self indulgent? Maybe. Yes, she put unusual accents and cadences in odd places and held the c-sharp three octaves above middle C a bit too long for my taste, but her voice is delightfully refined and she is clearly very well-trained. She certainly should not be put out to pasture, though. I suspect she is still a stage powerhouse.
Perhaps I am more forgiving because of the setting: sporting events and the like are more informal so I am not expecting perfect renditions and tend to give performers leave to be “creative”. I would if it were, say, a presidential inauguration, a High Mass, a military honor/graduation ceremony, a military funeral, or something calling for more seriousness, serenity, and sticking to the damn score. It’s really not that hard to find the sheet music with the lyrics and melody. I googled it and it took 1.2 seconds to find 11,235,434 hits. So, why can’t they stick to the script? Is that asking too much? I guess so.
I might just one of the few who hates and/or laments the overemotings of most Anthem singers (yeah, Whitney and Mariah, I’m looking at you) and other musicians channeling their Inner Jimis when performing the anthem. Don’t even get me started on faux country crossover singers who put Southernish accents and flourishes all over the song. I think I am starting to understand the need for the guillotine . . . – – – . . .
I get that it is a very difficult to sing it as written*. I don’t get that it can not be sung with a degree of reverence and humility for the song’s status and stature as the National Anthem. Yeah, yeah, yeah, First Amendment and all but, c’mon. Stop with the incessant warbling and don’t sing it in another language. Ever. ICE raids be damned. That is a slap in the face of the nation and the sports team dumb enough to ask you to sing it in English. (I mean, if you have to have that conversation with the singer beforer the game, then perhaps the performer might’n’t be the best choice/use of your National Anthem Singer dollars. Just sayin’.)
Well, I must depart because the Texas First Court of Appeals just issued a ruling/opinion on one of my cases where they got the law and the facts exactly bassackwards. Perhaps electing appellate judges may not be the best way to uphold precedent and stare decisis. Ugh. They said I didn’t give them authority in one sentence in my 19 page argument! Didn’t they see it on page 14, paragraph 3, line 6, with the string citation in the footnote? Jerks. Double ugh!
jvb
*Ed. Note: It may be more difficult then other national anthems. Compared to the French, Canadian, and Mexican anthems (songs with I am more familiar), it is right up there and possibly a bit more challenging. The British national anthem is much easier for an unworthy vocalist such as your humble scrivener, though. That still doesn’t justify sending the song to the slaughtherhouse. And don’t tell Whitney or Mariah’s versions are stirring and wonderful. They’re not. I hate them and never want to hear them again.
I started to listen to Chenowith and continued reading not really understanding why it was considered so bad. I paused her to re-listen to Houston’s rendition because I had not heard it since the first time it was on aired. Then I re-listened to Chenowith’s and immediately understood the criticism…. it had an amatuerish adolescent quality to it.
Which offends more ethics standards, Chenowith or Rosane Bar singing the anthem?
It shouldn’t be a contest.
What if Donald Trump sand the national anthem at the next super bowl?
I’d rather he didn’t. Of course, it’s true that I have no idea what type of singer he is. For all we know, he is a beautiful baritone.
But I don’t like getting into the “Who’s Worse?” debate. Either the singer is appropriate or isn’t. Roseanne Barr was not appropriate as we had no reason to believe she was a good singer (and she is not), she didn’t take it seriously (a big ethics breach) and she doubled-down by being deliberately offensive. Chenoweth appears to have taken it seriously, doesn’t really have a bad singing voice, but, perhaps, may have gratuitously put the spotlight on herself instead of the flag. That last is also unethical, but in a different way than Roseanne’s “Me” moment.
Please…don’t give him any ideas. But I assume the results would be something like this…
It’s one reason Chris Isaak’s version is one of my favorites. For a singer known for his use of falsetto, he doesn’t use it. Instead a simple rendition that’s clear and not screechy. Then sang God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch. Okay, he gets points for wearing a tie.
I don’t go to events with the anthem often, but when I do, I would love to have the anthem sung perfectly straight. No showing off singing skills, vibrato, vocal fry, etc… just hitting the right notes at the right time for the right duration.
I’d like it even more if they had the audience sing en mass instead of making it a performance, but that seems even less likely to take off. I’m not a church goer now, but I loved participating in hymns when I was young. I think it would be awesome to have a stadium worth of people singing, even if a significant portion screwed it up.
Happens at baseball games all the time. I use to bring groups of my singer friends, and we blew everyone’s minds.