(PCM) At the 2013 Memorial Cup opening ceremonies, the crowd heard an unusual version of the United State’s national anthem. You can blame it on nerves, the excitement of singing before a large crowd or not spending enough time checking out the lyrics.
Alexis Normand, a jazz and folk singer from Saskatoon, sang much of the admittedly difficult song fairly well, but mixed up some of the lyrics in the middle, and kept on going with random phrases from the American National anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner,” until the finish. The crowd cheered her attempt and she later tweeted an apology.
It was pretty cool of the Canadian crowd to boost her along with the correct lyrics, and I have to admit it took a lot for the young lady, after screwing up to stay and finish the song. And its easy to criticize a singer for messing up a different country’s anthem. Here in the USA, with our anthem, we have many words, in a difficult to follow tempo, and to the best of my knowledge, Canada has only two words in their entire anthem – “O” and “Canada.”
The 2013 Memorial Cup will be a four-team tournament played in May, 2013. The tournament features the London Knights, champions of the Ontario Hockey League, the Halifax Mooseheads, champions of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the Portland Winterhawks, champions of the Western Hockey League, and the Saskatoon Blades.