'Cursive' National Anthem Rendition Doesn't Land Well

Ingrid Andress is a four-time Grammy nominee who truly can sing. Just listen. However, the 32-year-old's rendition of the national anthem at baseball's Home Run Derby on Monday has gone viral for all the wrong reasons.

• Listen for yourself: You can hear Andress' rendition here.
• Bad comparisons: The country singer is getting slammed all over social media, with lots of people saying she is in the conversation with Roseanne Barr or perhaps Fergie for the worst rendition ever, reports Page Six. "Somewhere even Roseanne was screaming for earplugs," is one typical comment.

• A little slack: Andress sang it a cappella, notes Bethy Squires at Vulture. The "song is too hard!" she writes. "The range you need for it is psycho, and when sung a cappella, it's that much harder." Andress, though, didn't help herself with her "cursive" style and attempted flourishes. Cursive? "Even if you don't know the term, you know the vibe," explains Squires. "That way people wayrm theyre vowayals and add a lot of vocal fry."
• Getting technical: Entertainment Weekly takes a nearly technical look at what Andress attempted, and failed, to pull off. "As with all memorable 'Star Spangled Banner' performances, Andress' version takes a turn just after the halfway point as she ascends the shaky musical staircase of 'And the rockets' red glare,' fittingly punctuated by muted firework explosions—though in context, they feel more like question marks or ellipses than exclamation points," writes Wesley Stenzel.
• About her: Andress was born in Michigan and grew up in Colorado, where her dad was a coach with baseball's Colorado Rockies, per the Asbury Park Press. She had a hit single with "More Hearts Than Mine" in 2019, has two studio albums (Lady Like and Good Person), and has toured with Keith Urban. CNN notes that her first bit of fame came in 2010, when she performed a cappella on the NBC singing competition The Sing-Off. It also notes that 2020's Lady Like hit No. 1 on the Billboard Emerging Artists chart.

(More national anthem stories.)