reviews for her rendition of the
national anthem at this weekend's
Super Bowl. However, she is also
getting criticized for not standing
during the performance, during
which she was seated behind a
grand piano. Some have assumed
this is why the NFL is blocking the
video of Alicia singing "The Star-
Spangled Banner."
"It was disrespectful," one morning
has mentioned. "They had enough time and
manpower to think of this before the
performance. They could have had
her stand at her piano keyboard and
sing. To me and a lot of my friends,
she sounded great but the visual
was wrong."
Alicia isn't the first person to appear
on live TV and be criticized for not
standing during the song. In
September 2012, Wolf Blitzer and
Piers Morgan both remained seated
for at least half of the national
anthem at the Republican National
Convention, which resulted in CNN
issuing the following statement:
"CNN's anchors stood during the
national anthem as soon as their
cables were disconnected and they
were able to do so."
"Alicia is a proud American and was
honored to perform at the event,"
says a publicist who has worked with
Keys. "Her slow version of 'The Star-
Spangled Banner' was her own
arrangement, accompanying herself
on the piano, adding 'living in the
home of the brave' at the end of the
song. It's silly to see how that was
being disrespectful."
However, the NFL says the
performance has been removed on
copyright grounds. "The Star-
Spangled Banner" is in the public
domain, as it was written before
copyright laws existed.
However,
artists can copyright their own
arrangements of it. Whitney Houston
did just that in 1991 after she
performed a pre-recorded version of
the song
in the Super Bowl that year.
This has "nothing to do with the
content of the performance but a
rights issue," said NFL spokesman
Brian McCarthy, who added that
NFL.com plans to post the video
shortly.
No comments:
Post a Comment