Star Spangled Banner Lyrics: Where Christina Aguilera Failed At The Super Bowl

Oh say can you see... where Christina Aguilera went wrong?

The Grammy Award-winner sang the Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl on Sunday night, but had some trouble with Francis Scott Key's famed lyrics. Here is what she should have sang:

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 rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

As it happened, instead of of "O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming," Aguilera sang "What so proudly we watched at the twilight's last gleaming."

Read the rest of the lyrics, which are rarely sung, below:

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream: 'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Comments

[jenne andrews]

12:53 PM on 02/12/2011

Yes, double dipping into the low duh's here: Writer wake up! Should have sung...." xj

[mograph]

07:18 AM on 02/09/2011

"Should have sung", not "should have sang".

[flamenco]

12:44 AM on 02/09/2011

If she was going to botch it, she did an insufficient job. I was hoping for a Frank Drebin style performance. Now there's a guy that could really sing the anthem.

[erikqj]

04:15 AM on 02/10/2011

I don't know about that. As a botch job, it was pretty good.

I was standing in the middle of my living room, minding my own business, when that awful sound came from the TV in the background. I've never been in more of a hurry to find the remote and squeeze the mute button in my life! Turned out, it was so awful that it made the news in Norway. Not the sports news (NFL is completely irrelevant in my corner of the world) but the news news. Right up there with natural disasters and wars. Beyond all doubt, it's among the most painful news I've had related to me by TV.

[flamenco]

06:04 PM on 02/10/2011

Greetings to you in Norway! A great country. NFL is completely irrelevant in my corner of the world, too, the US.

It's true, she almost shattered glass, I think. But wow, if that's the most painful news you've ever had, I think I'm moving to Norway soon, and so is Frank Drebin! And maybe even Enrico Palazzo!

[RNAngel20]

02:33 PM on 02/08/2011

If it is sung just the way it is written, it doesn't need any extra embellishment. It is a great song as it is and doesn't need to be jazzed or bluesed up. I guess CA never heard that less is more.

[Pam Tucker]

02:06 AM on 02/08/2011

Wow, was she drinking?

[msc13]

10:48 PM on 02/07/2011

As punishment, she should meet Roethlesburger at a bar in Georgia.

[Sara Nichols]

09:35 PM on 02/07/2011

Christina has insulted her country by messing up the national anthem! Leave the country, Christina and go to Communist China!

[helen sieber]

08:43 PM on 02/07/2011

Ray Charles had this idea years ago and now they do it for many sporting events after 9/11, America the Beautiful.

Charles' version is flat out the best of any "patriotic" song. It's sung with just the right mixture of longing, togetherness, conviction and restraint; a recipe seemingly unimportant to most politicians and talking heads.

If you haven't heard his version, check it out on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRUjr8EVgBg&feature=related

Enjoy:)

[Smirk]

08:49 PM on 02/07/2011

I've always preferred America the Beautiful. In my opinion, it would be a much better national anthem.

[tlcpro]

10:41 AM on 02/09/2011

Awesome! Now that was worth listening to. Thanx for sharing.

[Mercedes]

06:49 PM on 02/07/2011

That pic at the top of this article explains it all. The big open pieh0le. Sorry to their fans, but Aguilera, Mariah Carey and anyone who 'sings' like they do sounds like a Nail Piercing into my Brain when I hear them.

Whatever happened to Plain Singing? Now, it's always open pieh0le, droning on and on and on with notes, and Screaming into the microphone until I'm ready to scream "Enough, Already!!!"

THIS is why I don't watch "American Idol". If I want to see someone open their pieh0le wide, I can see it when I go to a restaurant and watch people eat like there's no tomorrow...

[aluminum man]

06:30 PM on 02/07/2011

Ah, she was just singing nonverbatim. I thought it sounded pretty good for a change.

[Rubyfoo]

05:59 PM on 02/07/2011

Maybe they should get a serious musician to do the anthem and not a pop icon. Maybe we should also replace the silly anthem which has those words that pretty much no one can relate to. O'er the ramparts we watched? Haven't seen a rampart recently, much less watched over one. The martial nature of the song is really not representative of the U.S. today. Let's hold a contest for a new song, to which people might actually listen rather than spit them out by rote and be impatient to get on with whatever is happening.

[lapdogs]

05:52 PM on 02/07/2011

Perhaps if she didn't try to "Fancy Up The Notes" and stuck to the song as it was written, she would have remembered to lyrics that went with the song.

[sold2aol]

05:38 PM on 02/07/2011

That was awful.

[american-dolt]

03:39 PM on 02/07/2011

Not as bad as The Black Eyed Pee's