NBA Finals 2019: Ne-Yo performs National Anthem in Oakland

Tonight marks Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Toronto Raptors and the Golden State Warriors, but much like we’ve done for the better part of the past week, we’re writing here about National Anthems!

So who was lucky enough to perform the Anthem prior to the start of tonight’s tip-off? Think along the lines of Ne-Yo. He’s a stellar singer with plenty of hits under his name, and we knew that the odds were pretty high that, pending some Fergie-level kind of disaster, we’d see him rock this out. Of course, one of the big questions you had to ask here is if there would be any way for the performance to top what we had a chance to see earlier this week from Metallica. The legendary band got a chance to perform one of the best instrumental versions of the Anthem that we’ve ever heard.

Ne-Yo immediately went for the gusto with his version of the Anthem, starting off with a big vocal run before moving into some of the more traditional melody of the song. He didn’t actually change things too much save for a few extra notes here and there.

We’ve said this before, and we’ll continue to say it about a million or so more times. Performing the Anthem is one of the hardest tasks that anyone can possibly have, given mostly that this is the sort of performance that every single person wants to comb over with a fine-toothed comb. Everyone wants to find some sort of problem that they can go in and examine, but it’s hard to be critical of what Ne-Yo did here. We actually really like the note change-up he did at the very end.

As for the Canadian National Anthem – This may actually be a little more controversial, given that the Anthem was performed by band Walk Off the Earth. While we enjoyed a good bit of this, at the same time it was such a different arrangement than your typical take on “O Canada.” It actually felt like something that you’d hear around a campfire at some sort of cool hipster party. It’s always risky anytime that someone tries to do something different with this song.

For some more news on Metallica’s NBA Finals performance…

Be sure to visit the link here right now!

What did you think about Ne-Yo and his performance of the National Anthem? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments. (Photo: ABC.)