Hey, you guys remember how terrible U.S. Olympic great Carl Lewis was at singing the National Anthem?
Well, we've found someone who was able to do it worse. Victoria Zarlenga, who sang the National Anthem at EverBank Field for the USA Vs. Scotland friend, performed what was probably the worst rendition of the National Anthem known to man.
Don't believe me? Check out Landon Donovan's reaction after the perfomance (h/t @bubbaprog):
You can listen to it yourself after the jump.
Yeah. Pretty much the worst thing ever.
Now in Victoria's defense, she couldn't hear herself over the record near 45,000 person crowd that was trying to sing a long and she could only hear the TV audio of herself, which was delayed. I mean, this performance of her singing prior to a Florida Gators basketball game is head and shoulders better.
UPDATE 5-28-12: Victoria e-mailed me to respond to her performance. Here is what she sent:
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 and to block out the stadium sound delay, lack of knowledge on my part. Therefore, I had to borrow a pair from the sound crew that were too large for my ears and were popping out. Watching the 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 few seconds delay of my voice in the stadium. To add to the challenge, the fans were singing in sync with my few seconds delay. I kept hearing myself and the fans singing what I knew I had just sung a few seconds prior through the whole song. That was an incredible challenge just to get through the song, trying to concentrate on finishing, let alone pitch, time, etc.
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. To try to depict my experience hypothetically, it would be like the soccer team having a play and in the middle of it rewinding to a few seconds earlier and the team trying to manage both the current and past events in parallel over and over again throughout the game! This was the first time I ever heard of or experienced a sound delay. I was very disoriented with all these variables!
I would like to share with you a previous rendition and live performance of the National Anthem from about six months ago without the technical challenges
For more on tonight's friendly in Jacksonville between the U.S. men's national soccer team and Scotland, be sure to check back on this StoryStream for updates. For more on the USMNT, stay tuned to SB Nation Tampa Bay, or check out SB Nation's soccer hub.