Whitney houston national anthem free#
How could we? When we’re standing at ballgames dressed in jerseys to cheer on sports heroes, our hands on our hearts, these are the words we are asked to sing to evoke the pride of being in the land of the free and the home of the brave. We don’t pass along the truths of which these lyrics were born-how white supremacy was at the foundation of these words we sing to pledge our undying patriotism. See, we tend to forget-or ignore-the roots from which “The Star-Spangled Banner” sprouted. We tend to forget-or ignore-the roots from which “The Star-Spangled Banner” sprouted-how white supremacy was at the foundation of these words we sing to pledge our undying patriotism. But she was a Black artist singing an anthem that was built on the horrific oppressions of her people, and there’s a burden that comes with that-even if Whitney didn’t think about it when she stood on that stage and did what she did best. The sheer magnitude of Whitney’s voice and her transcendent performance turned the anthem into a moment of pure elation and pride for country. Hell, Roseanne went viral before it was a thing-and got canceled before that was a thing too. Death threats and anti-Semitic rhetoric followed, because there’s nothing more American than destroying celebrities who do stupid shit. And to make it worse, Roseanne spit and grabbed her crotch during the performance. Six months before Whitney sang the anthem, Roseanne Barr screeched her way through it before a San Diego Padres game. The victorious feeling Whitney Houston baked into the anthem is why we thumb our nose at those who are unable to make us feel like we are basking in victory after they’ve sung “The Star-Spangled Banner.” When Fergie turned the anthem into a burlesque romp or Christina Aguilera forgot the words or some moderately famous singer in over their head hit a sharp note, we turn their failure into our entertainment-sending them into the ether of the Internet for our forever judgment and ridicule. Michael had shed his Blackness in a physical sense the way we believed Whitney shed hers in her music and public personas.
We worshipped MJ, but he had all but evaporated into the image of whiteness. And Michael Jackson had entered his Dangerous era. Prince was taking us on orgasmic sonic adventures and reinventing himself time and time again. Madonna and Janet Jackson were volleying number one hits. Millions watched the sound of her voice explode like bombs bursting in air-astonished that a voice that mighty came out of one person.
But even if you weren’t there, you could feel it.
“If you were there, you could feel the intensity,” Whitney said in a 2000 interview. No one but Whitney could have taken the anthem and breathed so much life and meaning into it. If the concerts didn’t tell you that, the war white women raged on rap most certainly did. Or how it wasn’t just young Black kids across the five boroughs or in Compton bumping LL Cool J and N.W.A. Think about how many little Black boys who loved punk and rock and funk saw themselves in Prince’s chameleon-like approach to pop. It was the era that cultural critic Touré pegged “cultural biraciality,” where a generation of kids were embracing cultures outside their own. She and all the other babies who straddled the Boomer and Gen X generations had seen society become more integrated. So who else but Whitney could meet the moment? Who else had a voice that could touch everyone in that stadium and everyone watching from their living room? Whitney was marketed as proudly All-American, Miss Beautiful with a voice that transcended all that divided us in this great country.
Whitney had broken ground on MTV and in pop music, and her meteoric rise and streak of crossover singles made her the de facto voice of the post–civil rights era. Of course, Whitney was made for this moment, she was the moment. Billboard called her “the pop equivalent of a De Mille extravaganza-epic and expensive.” She was Clive’s most perfect creation. Clive Davis made sure of it, with his perfectly orchestrated rollout of her first two albums. Whitney’s sensational rise was as much a part of her narrative as her miraculous voice and her famous kin. She was the only artist to have seven consecutive number one Billboard Hot 100 hits, and she was the first woman to debut atop the Billboard 200 album chart. Who other than Whitney Houston could stand in triumph on a winter night in Tampa and sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” better than it had ever been sung before? When Whitney stepped on that stage at Super Bowl XXV and brought the world to a hush with the all-time greatest rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” she was amid a hot streak most pop stars only dream of.
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