Jewel Has Mangled the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ Sensationally

At this point, why even bother trying to sing a straightforward rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner?” The best you can do is gracefully fail to live up to the standard Whitney Houston’s rendition set in 1991, when she performed it before the Super Bowl. Mariah Carey, Kelly Clarkson, Beyoncé, Gladys Knight, and Jennifer Hudson are among the strong-to-legendary singers who have tried their vocal cords at the national anthem, pre-Super Bowl, to not exactly memorable results. That’s fine if you want to fill time, which is basically what they were commissioned to do. But if you really want to leave your mark on the patriotic standard, you gotta fuck it up.

Think Fergie at the 2018 NBA All-Star game. Think Chaka Khan at the same event two years later. And now think Jewel. Or don’t even put any effort into thinking about her—once you hear her take, performed Sunday at the Indy 500, you probably won’t be able to forget it.

It’s the same arrangement of the song that Jewel performed at the—you guessed it—NBA All-Star game earlier this year, with some bolder vocal choices that, uh, didn’t quite pay off, which is sometimes the result of said bold choices. Jewel actually has an extensive history with “The Star-Spangled Banner,” having performed it at the Super Bowl in 1998 and Game 1 of the World Series in 2001. But this most recent one is the one that people are talking about—the kind of performance that warrants posts like “Jewel Puts Her Own Spin on the National Anthem at the Indy 500 & Divides Fans” (on Billboard) and “People Are Really, Really Mad About Jewel’s Unique National Anthem Performance” (on Buzzfeed). Not to mention the very post you are reading. If Jewel went in and did a competent version of a standard arrangement, we wouldn’t be talking about her at all. You want to make a mark in the attention economy? Throw a racing flag in your hat, get that bass string a-bobbin’, and caterwaul your America-loving heart out.

At least Ted Nugent thinks so.

Jewel is no Marvin Gaye (his drum-machine-based, quiet storm version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 1983 NBA All-Stars Game was also notoriously radical, albeit beloved by many), but she took her shot, and in a rather flawed and not exactly repeat-worthy manner, nailed it. Think to yourself when the last time it was that Jewel made headlines by making music. See???