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Home / Entertainment

Top five national anthem fails (+videos)

Herald online
23 Jan, 2012 07:39 PM2 mins to read

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Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler joined an infamous club over the weekend: Singers involved in national anthem fails.

Tyler's rocky performance at the AFC championship game on Sunday was described by one commentator as more offensive than Janet Jackson's infamous nipple slip at the Super Bowl.

A newspaper said the American Idol judge "butchered" it.

But it got us thinking - what are the worst national anthem performances ever?

As we searched YouTube, we realised there sure have been a few. Like this poor girl who simply walked off after a couple of apologies at an ice hockey game - only to return and then slip over on the ice.

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We'd love to include Emma Paki's anthem fail at a league game at North Harbour Stadium here - but it's nowhere to be seen online. If anyone knows where we can find it, please send it in via the comments section below.

Here are nzherald.co.nz's top five favourite national anthem fails:

5. Billboard chose Kat DeLuna's anthem at a Dallas Cowboys game in 2008 as its worst ever anthem, saying the Dominican singer "never quite recovered" from her warbling and overblown performance. Crucially, DeLuna believes she's delivering the best American anthem ever.

Check it out:

4. There's nothing wrong with her performance - Christina Aguilera was in typically fine form at the 2011 Super Bowl. But crucially, she messed up some of the lyrics, and was roundly criticised for it. Check it out:

Discover more

New Zealand

'I get it, you don't like me': Westenra shrugs off critic

20 Nov 11:55 PM

3. Apart from a pretty bad echo, Michael Bolton wasn't doing too badly at a baseball game in 2003 - until he snuck a peek at the lyrics which had been written onto the palm of his hand, and was deservedly booed for it. Watch the horror unfold below:

2. Sprinter Carl Lewis made everyone laugh with his national anthem in 1993 - including these two newsreaders who get slightly hysterical while watching the clip:

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1. Tuneless, atrocious and unlistenable - and it was on purpose. Roseanne Barr's 1990 national anthem has to surely be the worst, and most controversial, anthem ever.

* Think you've seen a worse anthem? Post them below:

- Herald online

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