OUTRAGE.The old Switcheroo by an Afro-American jazz singer.
L.A. Times article read's as follows:.
Denver's City Council president is getting hammered with hate-filled messages in response to Tuesday's surprise performance of the "Black National Anthem" by a jazz singer during a city event.
Chanteuse René Marie had been invited by Mayor John Hickenlooper's office to sing the national anthem during his annual State of the City address.
Council President Michael Hancock, the master of ceremonies, introduced Marie, who sang what is known as the "Black National Anthem" instead.
Her performance evoked angry reactions among some of the estimated 700 people at the event.
"There is no substitute for the national anthem. Period," Councilman Charlie Brown said.
"This is the State of the City address. It's not an NAACP convention," he said, referring to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Hickenlooper and his staff said they expected Marie to sing the "The Star-Spangled Banner" and that they were surprised when she sang something different.
In a statement late Tuesday, Hickenlooper said: "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."
Hickenlooper said in an interview that he spoke to Marie after the ceremony and that she apologized profusely.
The mayor also said that Marie told him she meant no disrespect.
"She blended the two songs together," Hickenlooper said. "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."
Marie sang the first verse of James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," also known as the "Black National Anthem," but adapted those lyrics to the tune of the "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Marie said she had no regrets. She deliberately didn't tell anybody about her song choice "because I don't think it is necessary for an artist to ask permission to express themselves artistically," she said.
"I would not change a thing," Marie said.
"You have to risk things. You have to. Otherwise, you might of well live your life by a script."
Hancock said he had no idea that Marie was going to sing anything but the national anthem.
"I just read off the script, which was to introduce her to do the national anthem, so I expected the national anthem," he said.
Hancock, who met Marie for the first time Tuesday, said Marie should have cleared her song choice with the mayor and his administration.
It was "inappropriate" that she didn't, he said.
"She certainly should have given the mayor and the administration the opportunity to decide if they wanted her to sing the song that she sang," he said.
Hancock said he's been getting hate-filled e-mails over the song.
"I'm getting â�" as if I made the decision to do this â�" I'm receiving a lot of hate mail," he said. "I've received quite a few e-mails that are quite nasty."
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Afro-American jazz singer which abused the opportunity on a freebee gig. Decendent of Francis Scott Key, was outraged. What is Barack's View on this?
Does anyone know if he has addressed the issue?
If you do can you please shed some light, and please no racial slur's on this post. Not supporting Barack does not justify racially motivated attack's. Thank you.
By lobo. monitoring pages 4 little Dine' while he attend's to prolonged family matter.
Denver's City Council president is getting hammered with hate-filled messages in response to Tuesday's surprise performance of the "Black National Anthem" by a jazz singer during a city event.
Chanteuse René Marie had been invited by Mayor John Hickenlooper's office to sing the national anthem during his annual State of the City address.
Council President Michael Hancock, the master of ceremonies, introduced Marie, who sang what is known as the "Black National Anthem" instead.
Her performance evoked angry reactions among some of the estimated 700 people at the event.
"There is no substitute for the national anthem. Period," Councilman Charlie Brown said.
"This is the State of the City address. It's not an NAACP convention," he said, referring to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Hickenlooper and his staff said they expected Marie to sing the "The Star-Spangled Banner" and that they were surprised when she sang something different.
In a statement late Tuesday, Hickenlooper said: "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."
Hickenlooper said in an interview that he spoke to Marie after the ceremony and that she apologized profusely.
The mayor also said that Marie told him she meant no disrespect.
"She blended the two songs together," Hickenlooper said. "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."
Marie sang the first verse of James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," also known as the "Black National Anthem," but adapted those lyrics to the tune of the "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Marie said she had no regrets. She deliberately didn't tell anybody about her song choice "because I don't think it is necessary for an artist to ask permission to express themselves artistically," she said.
"I would not change a thing," Marie said.
"You have to risk things. You have to. Otherwise, you might of well live your life by a script."
Hancock said he had no idea that Marie was going to sing anything but the national anthem.
"I just read off the script, which was to introduce her to do the national anthem, so I expected the national anthem," he said.
Hancock, who met Marie for the first time Tuesday, said Marie should have cleared her song choice with the mayor and his administration.
It was "inappropriate" that she didn't, he said.
"She certainly should have given the mayor and the administration the opportunity to decide if they wanted her to sing the song that she sang," he said.
Hancock said he's been getting hate-filled e-mails over the song.
"I'm getting â�" as if I made the decision to do this â�" I'm receiving a lot of hate mail," he said. "I've received quite a few e-mails that are quite nasty."
___________________________________________________________
Afro-American jazz singer which abused the opportunity on a freebee gig. Decendent of Francis Scott Key, was outraged. What is Barack's View on this?
Does anyone know if he has addressed the issue?
If you do can you please shed some light, and please no racial slur's on this post. Not supporting Barack does not justify racially motivated attack's. Thank you.
By lobo. monitoring pages 4 little Dine' while he attend's to prolonged family matter.
He added that as far as he is concerned, there is only one national anthem, and that is The Star Spangled Banner.
I have never heard of this singer, and I had never heard of this song being called "the Black National Anthem" before. I have always known it under its original title "Lift Up Every Voice and Sing". It is a gospel standard and a very old song (first performed in 1900 in celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday). Apparently, the NAACP started referring to the song as "the Negro National Anthem" as early as 1919, but it was only in the 1970s that it started being sung at public events AFTER the Star Spangled Banner (not in place of it).
Lobo,
I am wondering what this has to do with Barack Obama? The event was nothing to do with him, he was in Montana at the time.
Link
Lobo.
Lobo.
Thanks for locating the article.
It does not make sense, because they only covered one half of the article, which is equivelent to one half of the truth. Because of the GE campaign now in (race war) full swing, this type of half truth reporting might very well have intentionally been told halfway at convenience. I also wonder if it might be a good idea or not to do a check on the history of the reporter that covered the story. Surprizingly when you research the stories covered by any particular reporter , it is very easy to find out whether he be racist or not. The words used by them usually give sign's of racial motivation. Does any one have ideas?
He only reported half of the truth.
Lobo.
Perhaps they omitted the reference to Obama for the reason I asked, they didn't really see what it had to do with him. There is no connection I can see, other than the fact he is African-American. I'm not sure why reporters would find it so important to ask his opinion - was it because he is black or was it because he wrote an article on the meaning of patriotism in response to a request by Time Magazine? And if the latter, why didn't they ask John McCain, who simultaneously wrote an article about patriotism for Time Magazine?
The incident made me think back to 1990, when Roseanne Barr sang a ghastly rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. She was roundly condemned for it, but I do not recall anybody calling up certain politicians and asking for their opinion, nor trying to "connect the dots" between Barr and the politicians she may or may not have supported.
"Well, Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing is a beautiful song that has been sung in African-American churches and other events for a very long time," the presumed Democratic presidential nominee told the Rocky Mountain News in a telephone interview on his way to North Dakota on Thursday. "We only have one national anthem. And so, if she was asked to sing the national anthem, she should have sung that. Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing is a beautiful song, but we have one national anthem."
Should he apologize for that too??