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WATCH: A Train Wreck Of A 'Star-Spangled Banner' Performance

Imagine: You're tapped to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Memorial Cup, a Canadian hockey tournament being held in Saskatoon. Midway through, you realize you don't know the words. What do you do?

Well, on Saturday, the Canadian jazz singer Alexis Normand decided to just keep going and mumble the rest. It's cringe-inducing, but also really funny. Watch:

Normand, by the way, sent this tweet shortly after her performance:

"I'm embarrassed and deeply sorry. I wish I'd had more time to learn the American anthem. Thanks so much for the crowd's help! #memorialcup"

Salon gives her some solace. It rounds up the "worst national anthem fails." Among them: Michael Bolton, who had to stop midway to read the lyrics off his hand.

All of this reminded Boston.com of the scene from The Naked Gun.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.
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