Black woman switches the "National Anthem" for "National Black Anthem" at Denver state of the city address
Jazz singer Rene Marie was invited to sing the National Anthem at Mayor John Hickenlooper’s State of the City address in Denver, Colorado. Homegirl broke out into the “National Black Anthem” also known as “Lift Every Voice and Sing” over the “Star Spangled Banner” beat. This enraged some of the event attendees. The Rocky Mountain News reports people have sent hate mail out as a result.
According to Rocky Mountain News:
Councilman Charlie Brown: “There is no substitute for the national anthem. Period…This is the State of the City address. It's not an NAACP convention."
The Mayor responded:
"I'm disappointed that this matter has been a distraction from the great work and significant accomplishments of our city employees over the past year and the many important initiatives on tap for the coming year.
She blended the two songs together. She was trying to make an artistic expression of her love for the country. She did not intend to make a political statement or anything."
Renee Marie said she was expressing her artistic expression:
"…I don't think it is necessary for an artist to ask permission to express themselves artistically…I would not change a thing…You have to risk things. You have to. Otherwise, you might of well live your life by a script."
Was she right to start singing the National Black Anthem when she was supposed to be singing the National Anthem? I think if she agreed to sing the “National Anthem,” then that is the song she should have committed to singing. Why do people have to send hate mail?
Reference:
Rocky Mountain News Article
Watch Entire Address
Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing lyrics:
Lift ev'ry voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring.
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise,
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might,
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee,
Shadowed beneath thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Star Spangled Banner lyrics:
Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'T is the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us as a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause. it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
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