A Canadian singer tried to wing "The Star-Spangled Banner." That was a mistake.
As they say, one day she'll laugh about it:
Friday night was certainly one to forget for Caroline Marcil of Montreal.
The singer was slated to perform the national anthems prior to the United States' 5-4 exhibition hockey win over Canada. However, she sang neither after twice failing to complete the Star Spangled Banner when she seemingly forgot the words.
After apologizing to the crowd, Marcil left the ice and headed back towards the dressing room - to a smattering of boos from the Quebec Coliseum crowd of 7,166 - presumably to get the words.
But when the young woman returned to the ice, the carpet slipped out from underneath her, causing Marcil to fall hard. After lying motionless on the ice for a few seconds, she left on her own and television replays showed a despondent Marcil being consoled in the hallway adjacent to the ice surface.
To add insult to injury, since it was a cappella, she couldn't even blame the drummer.
Posted by floridacracker at April 23, 2005 07:37 AMI saw something similar happen last summer to a young high schooler at a public concert. She forgot the words. Stopped. Apologized. Then I heard a soft voice singing from the audience--it was her mother, and she started over. It was beautiful. Our anthem must be every singers nightmare--and a few Canadians now too.
Posted by: Norma at April 24, 2005 04:58 PMYes, it's famously difficult to sing. Nice story about the high schooler. I wish one of our hockey players would have come over and helped the girl sing it.
Really, you cannot go out there and try to wing that song.
Thankfully, as time goes on, she'll be able to forget that awful experience.