Canadian singer Alexis Normand’s performance “The Star-Spangled Banner” will join the list of the worst performances of the American National Anthem in recent memory. And she would agree with that assessment. Normand, who sang the song before a hockey game Saturday, quickly apologized.
Normand was asked to sing the song at that Memorial Cup game between the Halifax Mooseheads and the Portland Winterhawks the morning before the game. According to The Toronto Star, she was confident in her skills to learn a song quickly, but her skills failed her. She frequently forgot the lyrics and took long pauses between words. The crowd at the Credit Union Centre helped her along as she tried to get through the whole song.
“I’m usually a quick study and I’ve been learning songs for a long time. I had learned all the lyrics, but nerves just got the best of me and I got really nervous and it all unwound from there,” she explained.
Later, the Jazz singer took to Twitter to apologize. “I'm embarrassed and deeply sorry. I wish I'd had more time to learn the American anthem. Thanks so much for the crowd's help!” she wrote. On Sunday, she tweeted, “No doubt it's been a rough 24 hrs! Thanks to everyone who has sent supportive messages! I also empathize with victims of cyber-bullying.”
Normand also spoke with the Calgary Herald and was still a little dumbfounded by the idea that this is what she had to do to get her name out there.
“Who would have thought this was the way to get my name out. I had to mess up this bad? It’s crazy,” she told the paper. “It’s been pretty overwhelming. I’m embarrassed by it, and I’m very sorry to have made the mistake. But mistakes happen to everyone, and life goes on. I just have to pick myself up, dust myself off and keep going.”
Normand notes that although she has been insulted on the web, some people out there are supporting her. “There’s obviously the more insulting comments. But I’m getting lots of emails - ‘don’t worry about it’; ‘I’m from the States and I don’t even know the anthem;’ ‘it’s okay, don’t sweat it.’”
image: YouTube