Crowd Completely Froze After National Anthem Didn’t Play. Then A Chilling Noise Overtook The Room
Although Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner back in 1814, it did not become the official national anthem of the United States for more than one hundred years. In 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed the congressional act that made it the official anthem of the country. Since then millions of Americans have learned the lyrics so they could sing along with it in pride as it played during sports games and other events.
Key wrote the poem after he watched the British assault Fort McHenry in Maryland. Key was being held prisoner by the British when they attacked and was inspired when he woke the next morning to see that Fort McHenry survived the 1,800 bomb assault.
Since it became the anthem, the Star Spangled Banner has been sung at all official ceremonies and sports games. When it plays at the Olympics, Americans put their hands over their hearts in pride.
Besides being the anthem, the tune is popular because it is challenging to sing. Many singers practice it day after day in order to perfect it. Few are able to nail it well enough to get people to rise to their feet and explode with abundant applause.
Professional singers usually accept the responsibility to sing the song for that very reason. Amateurs usually fail at getting it right.
One school in Iowa thought they had the perfect solution. Since their budget did not allow for a professional singer to come into their gym and sing the anthem for every game, they found a recording of the song that they felt did the Star Spangled Banner justice.
But when the recording crapped out during one basketball game, someone had to step up to take on the responsibility of singing the anthem – or the game would not be able to proceed. Thankfully, the school knew exactly what to do.
Because there was not one singer in the crowd or on the teams who felt able to take center stage and start singing, something amazing happened. Everyone – the players, referees, and every member of the crowd – stood up and started belting out the lyrics to the national anthem.
With so many unique voices taking the song lyric by lyric, people started to feel goosebumps appearing on their flesh. It was inspiring to see such unity around the country to which they were eager to display their loyalty.
The singing happened as follows, according to ZOFA:
“An Iowa crowd at a high school basketball game sang a heartfelt rendition of the national anthem when the recording failed to start. Video footage has gone viral on Facebook with over 81,000 views. ‘Due to technical issues, the recording of the national anthem wasn’t able to play before North Polk, and Roland-Story tipped off,’ reps for the station wrote. ‘But that didn’t faze anyone in the gym.’
Thousands of people have watched the footage, and many shared their thoughts about it in the comments.
What do you think about this unique rendition of the national anthem?
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