(Getty Images)
What the flub!
Christina Aguilera suffered a lyric malfunction while singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl last night, while maddening sound, light and camera missteps marred the glitzy halftime show featuring the Black Eyed Peas.
Five-time Grammy winner Aguilera muffed the fourth line of the anthem, warbling: “Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, what so proudly we watched at the twilight’s last gleaming.”
The correct lyrics are: “Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming.”
She later issued a statement: “I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and the true spirit of its anthem came through.”
Aguilera’s musical misstep was just the beginning of the Super Bowl of goofs.
With expectations running high that the halftime show would be the biggest and boldest in years, the Peas were shucked up by the worst audio ever at a Super Bowl.
The Grammy-winning hip-pop quartet made a dramatic entrance to the 50-yard-line stage. Dressed in futuristic lighted leather costumes, and clutching guy wires, the crew dropped from the stadium’s rafters to launch into “Tonight Gonna Be A Good Night.”
Singer Will.i.am hit his mark perfectly, and with a robotic head twist, he passed the lead vocal onto his pretty sidekick, Fergie. With a look of steely determination, she sang hard — and the mike immediately fizzled in and out as if its batteries were weak.
The problem persisted through her solos in the Peas’ hit “Boom Boom Pow” — and it ended up more “Boom Boom Ow.”
Then, just as the band heated up with the politically charged “Where Is the Love,” performed against the backdrop of Valentine’s Day-themed red hearts, technical goblins took over.
The “v” in “love” failed to light up. The camera work seemed doomed. Tight close-ups of the Peas and the wide-angle glimpses of the entire production were too few to get a feel for what could have been eye-popping show.
Aguilera wasn’t the first singer to flub “The Star-Spangled Banner.” In 2001, Macy Gray botched the words at the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game in Canton, Ohio.