JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Jordan Sparks sings the National Anthem at the super bowl

American Idol winner Jordan Sparks does a brilliant, if rather unusual, version of the American National Anthem at the Super Bowl. Does anyone know what timing signature she was in. I could not count it. It wasn't 4/4 or 3/4 or 6/8. what was it?

I was just enjoying it, not counting it. Sorry!

IDK Joe ... but it do know, she did a really nice job with it! I was very nervous for her!
Joanne

That was a great version. My wife was getting chills! She seems to have taken her game up a notch since last year's idol contest.

Kevin

While I felt she did a great job of singing it, the arrangement reminded me more of a sentimental Christmas carol than the national anthem.

She looked incredibly nervous in the shot they showed of her prior to the commercial break before it, but looked very composed once she was before the mic.

The only audience on TV larger than American Idol is the Super Bowl. Now she's successfully done both. I did think it was an unusual arrangement and that was a good thing. We didn't need another vocal acrobat trying to overshadow the song. It doesn't need a vocalist showing off their voice.. it needs a stirring and heartfelt performance and the song will do the rest. Nice job I thought.

Brian

I thought she did beautifully too......Was my favorite super bowl
arrangement of the National Anthem...in years.

Kaley...



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I was in a noisy Sports Bar, so I couldn't tell,so did she lip-synch it? They usually do at the Super Bowl. Just curious.

thought she did a great job

Fox kept the camera on her right when she finished and
I read her lips saying something like
"Whew glad that's over."

Definitely no lip syncing there. I also thought it was a great performance.

ditto she did a very original great version

I also enjoyed Tom Petty performing at the Halftime Show. That was the best music I've seen for a halftime show in a long time.

not to mention, it was a great game

It was in 4/4. There was one bar of 6 (or 2) near the end. Otherwise straight 4/4. I liked the arrangement very much. I thought her vocal was okay, but with too much "show-off." She has a fine voice, and good control of it, but she sure sounds like about a zillion other young women singers.

sheesh
I can't believe you guys were actually counting what time she was singing in.
I was just enjoying her performance and singing along in my head.
way to analytical for me, or should I just say Anal, LOL

I'm going to the bluebird and watch some songwriters
see ya later

I didn't think it was a show off in the least. Whitney Houston was a show off to the nth degree. Compared to that, this was the most modest performance I've seen of it in a long time. It appeared to me she was singing live, but network TV does what it wants and who really knows. The last lip synch I was sure of in the Superbowl was Shania Twain who was really bad at lip synching and the entire performance was awful. Prince last year in the pouring rain was the best Super Bowl performance I've ever seen and I can't think of anything even close to it. He was on fire looking like an artist at the peak of his career rather than late in it (and after much of the world had moved on to other things). I am surprised folks have already forgotten it.. but then again, a lot of folks can't even remember who played in the games, let alone who performed the music.

I was actually far more satisfied with the Giants win than I was with our home town Colts winning last year. I've never previously rooted for an NFC team (having grown up in the middle of the Bengals, Browns, Colts and Steelers during my life).

The fact that the Patriots had the INTENT to cheat is a disgrace. I could care less if they were successful or not. If they were willing to cross that line, then it's no different than if they paid off referees or opposing team members to win. Cheating is cheating. Intent to cheat is cheating. I think they should have to forfeit all games in any season they attempted to cheat. Anything less brings the entire integrity of the league into question.

Brian

I forgot about Prince last year! YES that was quite incredible. he is great.

Bill, I did not sit and count the beats. A question was raised and I watched a playback so I could answer it. Is that ok with you?

Well, you've said that twice now and I've only disagreed once, so I guess you are correct.

But I do believe she sang some notes that were not on the sheet music our high school band used to play before assemblies.

Even if she did show off a little, would that be a bad thing? If you've got a great talent you should use it

I think she sang in the context of the arrangement which was clearly not on the high school band sheet music. I didn't hear a non stop set of vocal runs from the likes of Whitney Houston or nearly anyone else who has ever sang that song at a super bowl. She has the talent to nearly (not totally but nearly) match Whitney Houston's runs.. but didn't do it. That's class in my book.

Nice to see you back in action Truman.. you've been a bit scarce of late.

Brian

Bill, I was in a marching band in high school. I played the base drum when we were on the field so I kind of count without thinking about it. Believe me, I was impressed and moved by the performance . I thought she handled it like an artist and not a show off. I wish I had kept the DVR recording of it- then I would count in earnest. I want to think it was live but you have got to consider how very very hard it is to play in a stadium. I have a video tape recording of a famous country artist (I won't say who) singing the Nation Anthem at the TCU home stadium here in Fort Worth. It is the worst thing I have ever heard sung in public. He was singing with a huge delay and couldn't hear
the band very well so he was out of key- and to make matters worse, he forgot the words!

the National Anthem is only 2 octaves but if you don't pick the key correctly it is really easy to get out of your range. Somebody like Jordan Sparks (Is it her dad or uncle, who is a NFL player?) could sing it in any key but would have to choose her "frills" carefully.

ha!

Aside from the thought that our National Anthem is probably one of the hardest songs to sing I think she did a remarkable Job. If she was lip singing it I don't think she would have been so nervous. But I'd think she'd be nervous anyway.
Truman if you didn't tape it and go back and listen you musta been counting, LOL
But no worries. My thought is some of you guys are much more advanced musically and would pick up on that, especially if you have ever played and sang the Anthem.
And I admire that. It is something I cannot do.
I have never sang it except as a spectator. I have never had a reason to play the song.

Joe...
A two-octave range. Well, that's already one full octave out of my ability. You've heard me sing live. As long as the range is limited...I do okay. Get much beyond one octave and I sound like a cement truck having a hernia as the transmission is stripping gears! I admire anyone who can sing the National Anthem even reasonably good! "Mary Had A Little Lamb" suits my range just fine. Maybe I need to do a contemporary version of that, eh?

Al

Hi Gang:

It has to be one of the hardest songs to sing (yet alone perform) of just about anything I can imagine. I was late arriving back home and did not have the opportunity to hear Jordan perform. I've got to assume from your collective comments that (while an unusual version) it was pretty good.

Man oh man... did we ever get our "money's worth" in that game. Both teams deserved to win. I was never bored... even during the commercials. (LOL!)

Al, glad to see you posting again. Hope she continues to improve.

Dave

David, actually the National Anthem is not quite 2 octaves. It is exactly 2 octaves when you hear folks sing that one high note in the last part of the word "free" in "The land of the free....EEE
and the home of the brave" But if you are singing in the wrong key, that note will make you explode!

I wonder how Francis sang it?
or was it A poem.
I seem to remember reading he wrote ist as a poem.

How many folks know it had 4 verses?

Star Spangled Banner
Francis Scott Key...1814

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Bill, one of my favorite rendition of The Star Spangled Banner was sung live by Jose Feliciano singing the last verse. I only saw it once but I like the lyrics as much as the first verse.

His career almost ended after he changed the melody slightly in 1968 at a world series game. Players and radio stations were outraged and stopped playing his songs for years after that. You can catch it on Utube. It was not all that different. He sang the first verse like everybody else- and only slightly changed the melody. It wouldn't even get a complaint today.

How times change.
I seem to remember that. !968 was a volatile year. It did not take much to set people off and the media was no exception.
But Hendrix was applauded for his guitar rendition of the Anthem.
But I do remember some of the establishment suits were not to happy about it.
One that really stands out in my memory was Rosanne Barr. What were they thinking?

It was actually Whitney Houston that started the whole trend of lip-synching the anthem. It was the Giants-Bills game in 1991 when the Gulf war was underway,and patriotism was at a fever pitch. Everyone was blown away by her performance, only to find out later it was pre-recorded. It's been the standard practice more often than not at the Superbowl ever since.