Jewel, a folk and country singer, performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana in honor of the Indy 500.
Furthermore, the stylistic decision was not well received by fans. J. Douglas Boles, president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, announced that Jewel had been chosen for the honor earlier in the month.
According to a May 19 Boles press release, “We have gathered at IMS for more than a century to salute our country’s military heroes, and the performance of the national anthem is a tradition that reminds us all of their sacrifice and courage”. “Jewel’s performance will be a memorable and moving experience for fans on the runway and watching from home on NBC,” and many people took to social media to share that sentiment afterward.
Simply put, it wasn’t “memorable” in the way Boles had envisioned it.
“This is the ideal illustration of how to interpret the national anthem incorrectly. It was so insulting that it was, said one Twitter user. “One of the worst renditions of the national anthem I have ever witnessed. Roseanne’s not terrible, but she’s up there,” another person said, alluding to Roseanne Barr’s infamous performance from the 1990s. Some people had a different take on the artistic endeavor, which ranged from fitting her aesthetic to just plain sound like a classic Jewel song, even if Jewel’s rendition garnered some criticism.
In addition to Super Bowl XXXII in 1998, the singer performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at various sporting events on the national stage, including a traditional rendition.
