A singer was recently bashed for “butchering” the British national anthem at an England football match on Thursday evening. Italian-American singer Ellynora had been asked to perform God Save the King before the kick-off of the European Championship qualifier match in Napoli. However, she appeared to have trouble with the song, singing off-key, repeating the first line twice and fiddling with her earpiece.
Cameras caught the players catching each other’s eye in bemusement at the disaster and one TV pundit called the performance “a shambles” while fans watching on social media were quick to chime in, accusing her of “butchering” the anthem.
Ellynora apologizes for the performance
Now Ellynora – who previously attempted to represent San Marino in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest – has apologized, explaining a technical error meant she was hearing the music in her earpiece, but out of sync with her performance, and she found it impossible to catch up.
And she told the Daily Mail newspaper that she was:
“So angry with what happened because I wanted it to be perfect but what happened wasn’t my fault. I want to say sorry to all the England fans who were at the stadium and watching on TV, I’m mortified about what happened and I want people to know that I wasn’t being disrespectful.
“It was such an honour to be asked to sing the national anthem and I was so excited about it. I’ve never sung anything like that before.”
Wow. Got to be the worst national anthem performance I’ve ever watched 😭 #ITAENG pic.twitter.com/LYiev3KcGl
— Kyle Gacheru (@KyleGacheru) March 23, 2023
The English team went on to beat Italy 2-1.
