SUPERBOWL 53
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[1] Post Cher era defined as any anthem performed after Cher’s performance at the 1999 Superbowl
[2] Reference to 138 second performance [3]
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National Anthem Over/Under 121 seconds
For 2015, the Superbowl has chosen Idina Menzel to perform the National Anthem. Born Idina Kim Mentzel from Syosset, New York, Idina is known for her portrayal of Maureen Johnson in Rent, Elphaba in Wicked, and Shelby Corcoran in Glee. Ms. Menzel is best known as the voice of Elsa in Frozen. Idina is no rookie to the National Anthem. I was able to find three past taped performances online. |
Performance 1: December 29, 2007 – Giants Stadium
Duration: 95 Seconds What did we learn? She knows how to sing the Anthem fast. During this performance, she finished in 95 seconds, which would rank 4th fastest in the Post Cher Era. But not only did she finish it fast, but she also started fast, not easy for big a vocalist like Idina. By the quarter pole, “Flag was Still There”, she clocked in at 60 seconds flat, which would rank second fastest to the US Military in the Post Cher Era.
Stanley Hudson from The Office said it best when he said to Michael Scott that women say more in their pauses then they do in their words. On July 4th this year, Idina performed at the Macy’s New York City Fireworks Spectacular. To the average Anthemer, a duration of 156 seconds would lead you to believe that the over is a lock; however, there are a couple things to keep in mind.
She was performing to a choreographed firework display, there were times during this performance where she literally stopped singing for 10-12 seconds at a time to allow for massive bursts of fireworks to appear. In addition, she repeated lyrics more than once to add effect, which also added time to her performance. In a more normalized Superbowl setting, the experts who work with me agree, the correct timing of her performance, straight-lining her pauses and repetitive lyrics, which are viewed as low probability occurrences, was 109 seconds. Performance 3: July 16, 2014 – MLB All-Star Game Duration: 117 Seconds This performance will most likely mirror to her SuperBowl performance on Sunday. My first inclination from this performance was “she can’t do it much slower!” She held notes extremely long, took unnecessary pauses for a performer of her quality, and waited 4-5 seconds to allow for a fly-over, before finishing the last verse.
Conclusion My bet is the under. When it was announced Idina would be the performer, she was interviewed. During that interview she discussed how she hoped to emulate the late Whitney Houston’s rendition back in 1991. That rendition, for those of you wondering, was 116 seconds. Ms. Houston sang the Anthem in my opinion, perfectly, but more importantly with grace and not with the rifts or repetitive lyrics, which Ms. Keys and Ms. Hudson made infamous during their renditions. I believe Idina will do the same. She will learn from some of the failures exhibited by those women mentioned above and embody what Whitney would have wanted to hear: a perfectly sung 114-second rendition. Plus, nothing is more exciting than betting the under (I promise). Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose! |