Although technical difficulties were blamed, singer Victoria Zarlenga has been much criticised for her rendition of Star Spangled Banner – belted out before the USA v Scotland friendly in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday. The Americans dominated the game and ended up 5-1 winners, but that wasn’t the real story here…

Off Key or Awful?

… this YouTube video, provided by Kick TV, invites viewers to decide for themselves:

What do you think?

The singer later responded to the harsh commentary via her Facebook page:

In response to the comments I have received about tonights National Anthem … I totally hear you, this was not a good performance and I take full responsibility for it! I did not realize I would need ear buds as monitors to block out the stadium sounds. Therefore, I had to borrow a pair from the sound crew that were too large for my ears and were popping out. Watching this video you can see that I was trying to hold the left ear bud in with my hand. That said, I was unable to hear myself and was only hearing the delay of my voice in the stadium. To add to the challenge, the crowd was singing in sync with my few seconds delay. It was like I was singing the song twice word after word after word. I heard from a few fans that said the view on the Jumbotron was not in sync with what they were hearing. Apparently the TV recording and stadium sound were two separate systems – you had to be present at the stadium to see and hear the delay. I was very disoriented with all these variables!

Zarlenga then goes on to point out one of her much better performances of the anthem and, perhaps wisely, has not added this latest video to her YouTube channel.