In the wake of flubbing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl, Christina Aguilera has received a great deal of both criticism and sympathy. The Twitterverse was abuzz as the former Mousketeer skipped over a line in the Star-Spangled Banner, with Tweets like the above selection from “Weird” Al Yankovic gaining a great deal of attention. Even 9-year old Gina Marie Incandela, who delivers an incredible performance of the anthem during Orlando Magic playoff games, chimed in on the situation:
”I’m feeling bad for her because people are calling her a little bit of bad names. … Everyone makes mistakes. … She accidentally made just one little mistake.”
But Gina said she has sung the National Anthem more than 100 times and never flubbed the words. When I asked her if she would do a better job as a Super Bowl anthem singer than Aguilera, she replied, “I think so.” (Via Orlando Sentinel)
Uh oh, do I smell a cat fight?
Additionally, the folks at Guyism posted a clip from a local news broadcast in Phoenix, where a reporter asked some Average Joes their opinions on Christina’s mental lapse. Video after the jump (worth watching just for a “brain fart”)…
https://www.viddler.com/player/97fbed54/
And the debate marches on, and as I noticed in a brief-yet-incredibly-scientific Facebook status survey last night, it’s generally men vs. women. Men are making fun of the one-time pop diva – who is a multi-platinum recording artist, mind you – while women are defending her because she got divorced in October, showed up to Jeremy Renner’s birthday party wasted and passed out in his bed and is now reportedly refusing help from her friends.
Here’s the thing: If her life is this much of a poop tornado, then why didn’t her people pull her from the Super Bowl? I can’t name a single performance venue that is bigger to any recording artist’s career than the National Anthem at the Super Bowl. So why risk the chance of blowing it like she did? Lock the broad in the airport bathroom and tell them to fly someone else in. People are saying, “It happens…” Not at the Super Bowl, it doesn’t.
And as far as the “she has a drinking problem” argument, Whitney Houston was smoking crack – *allegedly* – and she still gave us the greatest Star-Spangled Banner performance in Super Bowl history. Christina has no excuse and therefore will bear the shame burden.
