Oh, say can you please sing the words correctly?

There is some controversy brewing in Denver tonight. Denver’s Mayor John Hickenlooper had invited jazz singer Rene Marie to sing the national anthem at the State of the City address on Tuesday. She had other plans and to paraphrase her; she felt the national anthem did not represent her as a black female in America. Knowing that had she approached the mayor or anyone else with her desire to sing a song that did represent her as a black American women she would have been told “No.” she kept that little bit of information to herself and surprised everybody buy singing the national black anthem instead of the national anthem. There were many unhappy people including the Mayor who said he felt he had been deceived. Well yes, she deceived everybody. When confronted with her deceit her explanation was an artist has to do what an artist has to do and no she is not sorry and yes, she would do it again.

It is amazing the arrogance shown when asked to perform for the mayor at a city event to use that as a platform to express her self. If she felt that the song did do not represent who she is she should have politely declined and they could have chosen a different singer one who knows the words to the national anthem and express her self some where else. I would like to share parts of the article from The Denver News channel.com but they wont let me copy right laws and such so instead I will provide the link to you so you can read the story in its entirety. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/16773120/detail.html I think I can do that. What is interesting to note is that the web site has posted a survey to ask the question was it inappropriate of her to sing a different song then the one she agreed to sing, so far over 3000 people have voted and 80% say yes it was indeed inappropriate to a tiny 20% who say no it was not inappropriate. You would think with the sentiment this heavily against her she might reconsider and say she was sorry but apparently not. One thing we know with absolute certainty is she will not be invited back to sing and the next singer will be carefully screened to make sure that they know the words to the song and actually pan to sing the song. I would volunteer but I cannot carry a tune in a bucket.