NFC Championship Game: Jimmy Buffett sings National Anthem, drops mic
Today, the famous “Margaritaville” singer arrived in New Orleans (he is a longtime Saints fan) in order to perform the classic “The Star-Spangled Banner.” In the end, this was … interesting? We have heard a few people online who found his take on the anthem (watch below) worth watching; yet, the majority of the reaction has been negative. The mic drop is still the part of us that surprises us, mostly because it doesn’t feel like this is the sort of thing that necessitates a mic drop. What’s the point of that? Typically, dropping the mic = you thinking that you’ve actually done something to change the game. We’re not sure of that here with Buffett, mostly because “getting people mad at you on Twitter over an anthem performance” is hardly changing the game. (The worst part for Jimmy is that a misspelled version of his name is trending on social media.)
Of course, we say all of this understanding that doing the National Anthem is largely a thankless job. The majority of times people choose to perform it, it’s met with a rather-negative response in turn. There are a lot of people out there who, quite frankly, want to go online and be snarky about an Anthem performance. It’s such a hard song to sing and we’ve got sympathy for people who have to perform it.
Yet, there are also some things that singers can to get out of their own way to a certain degree. For starters, they can try their best to stay firm with the original arrangement, or try not to throw too many runs into the mix. Beyond all of this, they can also do some things that aren’t intentionally attention-seeking like dropping the mic at the end. We understand the appeal here, given that it is a huge audience you are performing in front of and it’s a chance to get good publicity. It’s also an honor to be asked. But, is it really worth performing and dealing with the backlash if you do something wrong? We’re not altogether sure on that.
We imagine that there are going to be at least a few more opportunities for National Anthem hot takes over the next few weeks — after all, we’ve got the AFC Championship Game later, the Super Bowl, and then also the NBA All-Star Game coming up.
What do you think about Jimmy Buffett’s performance of the National Anthem as a whole? Be sure to share some of your thoughts on the subject below, and stay tuned for some other news. (Photo: Fox.)