Cut Her Some Slack

I like to think of myself as a pretty patriotic kind of person. I'm all about some apple pie and the Fourth of July. But can we stop filling news websites with headlines about how Christina Aguilera messed up singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl?

She flubbed a line. Deal with it. Move on.

Look, The Star-Spangled Banner isn't the easiest of songs to begin with. It's got a crazy range. Singing it in the shower could pose a problem for a lot of people. Imagine singing it live in front of tens of thousands of people, not to mention the largest television audience in recorded history.

And do some man on the street interviews. I really do wonder how many people in the country could recite the lyrics of our National Anthem word for word. How many of them would know what a rampart is?

Speaking as someone who has performed the National Anthem in front of an audience, I can say it's kind of nerve-racking. It's a song that carries a whole lot of meaning for a whole lot of people, so that adds a lot of pressure. Anyone who loves this country would want to make sure they got it right. But mistakes happen. She got lost in the moment and lost her place in the song. And she carried on like a professional. Do we stone meteorologists when they get the forecast wrong night after night? No. One singer messes up one time and it becomes world news.

So to Christina Aguilera, wherever you may be on this chilly February morning, keep your head up. You're catching a lot of slack from a lot of people who probably wouldn't even have the nerve to sing that song in front of a dozen of their closest friends, much less the world stage of Super Bowl XLV.

Oh, by the way, a rampart is a defensive wall. In case you were wondering.