I’m not referring to the Star Spangled Banner. Americans can mangle that to their heart’s content. No, what I’m referring to is the rendition, if it can even be called that, sung in Denver, Colorado over the weekend, prior to the international Rugby League match between England and New Zealand.
The singer, Crystal Collins, started by singing a shaky version of God Save The Queen, but when she attempted Aotearoa / God Defend New Zealand, not only did she horribly mangle the words and timing of the first verse in Māori, she didn’t do any better with the verse in English, where she was completely out of sync with the backing music, and even at times seemed to be singing to the tune of Good King Wenceslas!
What a way to insult a nation! It would have been much more respectful to have simply played a pre-recorded orchestral version than allowing Crystal Collins to get behind the microphone.
Unfortunately, I’m not able to locate a video that I can embed in this post, so the best I can do is provide a link. If you’re American, be prepared to be suitably embarrassed: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-24/singer-delivers-interesting-rendition-of-nz/9903662. You could use that to demonstrate how not to win friends and influence people.
Once you’ve recovered from that, you might like to see how it should be rendered:
Another Spectrum 