Worst National Anthem Performances: 12 Star-Spangled Blunders

During major sporting competitions, viewers hear many notable renditions of 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' but the quality of the singing isn't guaranteed. America's national anthem has been butchered repeatedly at sporting events by everyone from athletes to amateurs to top recording artists. Hopefully, fans won't be subjected to anything as wretched as these sorry renditions.

Steven Tyler
Woof. Tyler's off-key, warbling version before the 2012 AFC Championship somehow even trumps the time he changed the words to the anthem at the Indianapolis 500. The Patriots may have won the game, but they lost major life points when they invited the 'American Idol' judge to join them on the podium when they accepted their trophy.



Christina Aguilera
Despite Aguilera's aura of confidence and nattily professional attire, the usually sure-footed pop singer's nerves got the best of her at 2011's Super Bowl XLV as she flubbed a line in the second verse of 'The Star Spangled Banner.' Instead of "'O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming," she awkwardly warbled, "What so proudly we watched at the twilight's last reaming." Aguilera has since apologized profusely, but no apology is needed for opting not to sing about whatever a "rampart" is.



Carl Lewis
The US track and field legend did his country proud by winning nine Olympic gold medals, but he should have run far away from being a singer. Lewis' rendition of his national anthem at a 1993 National Basketball Association game is, to put it lightly, painful. After one missed note, he even says, "Uh-oh," then tells the disapproving crowd, "I'll make up for it." He didn't.


Cuba Gooding Sr.
The father of the Oscar-winning actor is also the lead singer of long-running R&B group the Main Ingredient, but thanks to YouTube, he gets more recognition for this aberrant anthem rendition. Singing at a McDonald's-sponsored basketball tournament, Gooding's excruciating high notes are certainly a lowlight.


Caroline Marcil
The Canadian singer was slated to sing both the American and her native anthem at a 2005 hockey game between the two neighboring nations. Not only did she forget the words to 'The Star-Spangled Banner' twice, she left to get a lyrics sheet for a third attempt, then returned -- only to fall on the ice. Hard. All in a matter of one minute, 18 seconds.


R. Kelly
While Marvin Gaye had a hit with his R&B-tinged 'Star-Spangled Banner,' R. Kelly's -- delivered before a 2005 Bernard Hopkins-Jermain Taylor boxing match -- drew plenty of criticism. Maybe it's because he sped it up and brought dancers with him into the ring. The fact that he was still embroiled in the infamous child pornography case couldn't have helped, either.


Stevie Ray Vaughan
One can assume that SRV wanted to emulate his hero, Jimi Hendrix, when he was asked to perform the national anthem on guitar at the Houston Astros' 1985 baseball season opener. Vaughan, at the height of his drug and alcohol abuse, butchered this bottleneck-heavy rendition and confessed to baseball legend Mickey Mantle that he didn't know how to play the song.


Michael Bolton
Boston's Fenway Park can be a hostile place -- just ask Bolton, who sang the national anthem there during the 2003 American League baseball championship series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. At the 0:46 mark, the crooner forgot the words and paused to look at the lyrics, which were written on his hand. He recovered to finish the song, but fans haven't forgotten his blunder.


Kat DeLuna
DeLuna's performance at a 2008 Dallas Cowboys National Football League game exemplifies the worst of the "overwrought vocal flourishes" trend. The 20-year-old singer seemed more focused on emphasizing the words and her movements than actually hitting her notes, and after warbling through "land of the free," the crowd let her have it.


Roseanne Barr
The unarguably worst performance of the American anthem came at a 1990 San Diego Padres baseball game. The comedian and actress deliberately sang off key, then grabbed her crotch and spit in emulation of a baseball player. Then-President George H.W. Bush voiced the sentiments of millions of Americans in calling it "disgraceful."


Lucy Lawless
When the 'Xena: Warrior Princess' star sang the 'Star-Spangled Banner' at a 1997 Anaheim Mighty Ducks hockey game, her vocal performance was spot-on. However, her choice of a sexy Uncle Sam outfit wasn't. At the song's climax, Lawless raised her hands in triumph, only to reveal her left nipple. She later called her breakout performance "quite a bit more exposure than I want." The following video is intended for mature audiences, and is NSFW:


'O Canada' Doubleheader
It's not just 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and its one-and-a-half-octave range that has singers tripping over their tonsils. The butchering of other nations' songs can happen just as easily. Witness these two performances of the Canadian national anthem, and you'll see this is an international problem.


Bonus: Enrico Palazzo
No discussion of 'The Star Spangled Banner' and baseball would be complete without this famous clip from the 1988 comedy film 'The Naked Gun.' Leslie Nielsen's buffoon cop, Frank Drebin, manages to find himself on the field pretending to be singer Enrico Palazzo and delivers the anthem in a manner that would seem ridiculous if it weren't for all the other musical massacres we've witnessed.