Over the years, we’ve seen both great and bad performances of the National Anthem. When it comes to these performances, people have their favorites and their least favorites. And recently, many people agreed that what they had seen was by far the “worst.”
Pop star Conan Gray, who is 23 years old, put on this show. He has twenty-one million monthly Spotify listeners, but the question is, could he sing the Star-Spangled Banner without making any mistakes?
Gray sang the national anthem live at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles as part of the Home Run Derby. People were hoping for a great show, but many were let down.
People are upset with the young pop singer for what they say is the “worst” in American history. Los Angeles baseball fans who had to listen to Gray’s “impossibly bad” version of the national anthem at a recent Home Run Derby have called it “the worst attempt to sing the national anthem ever.”
Hundreds of people took to Twitter and Instagram right away to make fun of and criticize the YouTuber-turned-pop-star.
This Twitter user made a joke: “…a Congressional Committee that looks into who chose the singer for the National Anthem at the Home Run Derby.”
Another person who was following the conversation about Conan Gray on Twitter said, “This country has so many great singers, it’s almost impossible to have a national anthem that bad.”
This person had this to say after seeing Gray play in the Home Run Derby in Los Angeles: “I don’t know who TF Conan Gray is, but that was one of the worst versions of the national anthem I’ve ever heard. It was in the top five.”
Someone else sent a tweet that said, “1.) Who is Conan Gray? 2.) He might be the worst singer of the national anthem ever. Good heavens!”
Who is Conan Gray, though? And why are people making such a big deal about how bad he did?
Gray is a young man from Texas who posts videos on YouTube. When people started watching his videos on YouTube, his fame on the internet went through the roof. His YouTube account now has more than 4.7 million subscribers and his 266 videos have been watched more than a billion times.
He also has a big fan base on Spotify. Even more, millions of people listen to his music every month. His second album, “Superache,” came out in June, and both critics and fans gave it high marks. On top of everything else, Gray’s record made it into the top ten in both the US and UK.
So it made sense that people had a lot of hopes for him. It’s the National Anthem, and even young kids can recite it. Then nothing could go wrong, right?
It seems like the song wasn’t a good fit for his voice or for what people are used to hearing from him. Because of this, most people agree that Gray’s version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was not his best. Some people say it is one of the worst things ever.
Some even said that his performance was worse than when Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas sang the anthem at an NBA All-Star Game.
Do you think that nerves messed up his performance a lot? Or maybe because it was a live performance? What do you think about the way he did?