The National Anthem Should Be A Sing-A-Long, Not A Performance

For a singer, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime: singing our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” on an international stage. And what bigger stage is there than the Super Bowl? When the soloist steps up to the mic, the eyes — and ears — of the world are paying attention. Will he or she blow it? Or make us proud?

One of the moments that made us proudest as a country was, of course, when Whitney Houston sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XXV in 1991. She was beautiful, irrepressible, patriotic, joyful. The U.S. was in the midst of the Gulf War. And that voice. There has not been anything like it since. Time truly did seem to stop for a few minutes while we all soaked it in:

And yet, as wonderful a performance as Whitney’s was, it was still that — a performance. Yet, by definition, a national anthem is meant to be sung, not listened to. And the trend of giving it to a performer to present a stylized version rather than singing it in a way that encourages all to join in is a disappointing one. It reflects the overall trend of looking at singing not as something we do ourselves but as something only the professionals can handle.

Look, I get it. Our national anthem is a difficult piece of music, spanning a range of an octave and a fifth. Start it too high or low, and you’re in