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Fergie’s singing of the National Anthem was great

Fergie’s singing of the National Anthem was great

(Turns off internet before anyone can respond)

Fergie sang the National Anthem at the NBA All Star Game.

She was pretty brutally attacked for it.

https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/965730219985268736

Fergy has said she now regrets the performance:

“I’ve always been honored and proud to perform the national anthem and last night I wanted to try something special for the NBA. I’m a risk taker artistically, but clearly this rendition didn’t strike the intended tone. I love this country and honestly tried my best.”

There was no need to apologize.

Sure it was a little “different,” but I kinda liked it.

Not as much as I “liked” Roseanne’s version, though.

Regardless, Fergie will always be special.

[Featured Image Screenshot via @_LaMemeQueen on Twitter]

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Comments

I agree that it wasn’t that bad. And she sang it live – unlike a few super bowl heroines.

Not to interject race (although the NBA does that constantly by pandering to BLM and its “stars” who trash the President), but if she was the same race as the all-stars, her singing would have been called a great rendition, soulful etc.

And any of us who criticized it would then have been called racists.

Colonel Travis | February 19, 2018 at 8:13 pm

Here was the first time I’ve heard it since reading so much about it. Agree it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as others said. Don’t get the excessive criticism.

Never heard that arrangement by anyone before for the anthem, and while that style in and of itself isn’t bad, I can’t stand when this song is sung slow.

Either Kate Smith this thing or get the hell out of the way.

(Yeah, I know she’s more famous for God Bless America but she sang more than one song in her life.)

    healthguyfsu in reply to Colonel Travis. | February 19, 2018 at 11:10 pm

    It was appropriation and that just cannot stand.

    In other news, you are a racist unless you proclaim from the heavens that Black Panther is the greatest superhero movie of all time and Get Out is the best horror film of all time.

Mamma taught me that if I cant say something nice don’t say anything at all

No Comment!!!!!!

She frequently went off key, the vocal fry is painful to hear, this is like a lounge lizard version, and it lasting so long made it much more painful to endure.

She was trying to do a Marilyn Monroe moment with the National Anthem, and sorry, I feel it fell as flat as many of her notes did.

    Sanddog in reply to oldgoat36. | February 19, 2018 at 9:16 pm

    I was cringing every time she was off key… and I was cringing a lot.

    This could easily replace “Boots” in SERE school.

    Interesting. I missed the off-key singing. There was glissando all over the place, but no off-key.

      thetaqjr in reply to Casey. | February 23, 2018 at 1:41 am

      I’m a bit of a musician myself, but never enough of one with the time to look up “glissando.”

      And now I don’t have to. I can tell by context, it means “castrating Tomcats.”

      Who is Fergie anyway? I don’t have time to look that up either. I thought she was a princess or something.

I think it sucks.

Almost as repulsive as Joy Behar’s face. Almost.

Horrifying.

I made it to the 0:30 mark. Any more would require sedation.

It’s one of the most difficult songs to sing.

That said, it’s the National Anthem. How about having enough respect for it to sing it the way it was meant to be sung? Instead of trying to fame whore with your “rendition” of it.

    Casey in reply to Fen. | February 21, 2018 at 1:00 pm

    “Meant to be sung?” Are there Federally-mandated directions on how to sing the song?

    I would suggest a more accurate description would be “how I think the song should be performed,” but that lacks the implied authority you desire.

Because it’s not about you.

No really.

It was not good. That’s my opinion. She had a different opinion and took a risk she would be appreciated. Big deal. She’s talented and smart/nice enough to apologize to those that thought she should have done the song in a more traditional manner. Good for her. Live and learn (hopefully).

Maybe I’m out of line… but I miss the days when the National Anthem was treated as more important than the artistic satisfaction of the person singing it…

    rdmdawg in reply to MrMichael. | February 20, 2018 at 10:16 am

    Having been around artists forever, take it for granted that they’re a narcissistic lot. As far as artistic license and the National Anthem goes, I can hear Fergie now “They wouldn’t have invited me if they didn’t want my take on it.”

All right, credit where it’s due. She didn’t try to do it in rap.

Thane_Eichenauer | February 20, 2018 at 6:03 am

I wouldn’t ask for that rendition but neither do I complain about it. It was tolerable.

It was nowhere near as bad as stories made her out to be. She was slightly off key in places, many “nobodies” off the street could have sung it as well or better, but it wasn’t awful, like Roseanne Barr’s singing.

“Fergy has said she now regrets the performance:”
Gee ya think !!!!

“Regardless, Fergie will always be special.”

Do you mean special, or do you mean “special”?

Not sure who did the arrangement for her backing orchestra, but it was a bit… strange. I admit, she had an original take on it and it was well executed, I don’t get what the fuss is about either.

Was the all star game that boring and uninteresting that this is all the social media mob and modern culture mavens across the internet want to discuss? I’ve seen endless things about her singing and zero about the game.

Then again few all star games are that eventful, I guess.

I thought she was pretty good. I liked her scat-style singing.

I thought it was comical. Ace of Spades compared it to Frank Drebin’s rendition in The Naked Gun movie. Still, no reason to be hatin’ on poor Fergie. She did the best she could.

I see a white wumin using the National Anthem to deliver an awful pandering tribute to Ella Fitzgerald while wiping her feet on the country at the same time.

Texas Tinyhead | February 20, 2018 at 2:49 pm

I haven’t yet listened to Fergie’s interpretation of the Anthem, and I probably won’t. There are few singers who can sing it with the dignity it fully deserves. It is not inteneed to be an artistic statement for self-aggrandizement anymore than our flag should be handled carelessly. If you want to hear the Anthem played or sung as it should be, listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (sung), or the United States Marine Band (played). Or, for a sung solo performance, Whitney Houston’Super Bowl performance; there are only a handful who have treated it with the respect she showed it. If someone wants to jazz it up, or make it cool, or rap it, let them do so in the privacy of their own shower.

Fergie tried to turn the NA into a sexy torch song…problem is, the NA doesn’t have a sexy melody!
It’s a hard song to sing and slowing it down just makes it harder to sing…(Yikes!)

I get that she was trying to do something different, but different isn’t always better!

This is the first time I’ve ever heard of this singer. When I started seeing the storm commentary about this I was really puzzled, because I couldn’t figure out why the Duchess of York had been attempting the song in the first place.

2017: Taking a knee during the Anthem.

2018: Taking both knees in front of the toilet during the Anthem.

Actually, this was so … unique … that it may become a classic; right down there with Mae West’s rendition of Light My Fire, Phyllis Diller’s Satisfaction, or even William Shatner’s Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.

This appears to be a conservative version of virtue signaling; all true patriots will flame Fergie for her non-traditional performance of the song, regardless of actual quality.

I disagree with the slow jazz arrangement, and am not a fan of excessive glissando (which seems to be a “thing” these days), but her take wasn’t horrible. The biggest complaint was that it wasn’t a traditional arrangement, or that she didn’t sing it very well. Given that the Anthem has a 2.5 octave range, very few people have the voice to perform the song properly. She has good company there.

As for the arrangement, I suppose sputtering on the intertubez gives the pearl-clutchers something to complain about besides getting kids off their lawn…