Feb. 02--No news is good news for the pre-game performances of "The Star Spangled Banner" and "America the Beautiful." In recent years, Alicia Keys stirred up purists by stretching the national anthem to 2:40 in 2013, and Christina Aguilera showed off her multi-octave range but flubbed the lyrics in 2011.
This year, controversy took a nap while the musical mix of solemnness and spectacle (jets zooming the stadium) played out. John Legend delivered a crisp "America the Beautiful" solo at a grand piano, with only a teensy bit of embellishment as he neared the finish line. "Frozen" star Idina Menzel couldn't resist stretching a few notes like taffy during the national anthem -- "glare," "wave" and, of course, "free" and "brave" got multi-syllabic makeovers. But her a cappella performance clocked in at a mere 2:04, a half-minute shorter than Keys, though still a half-minute longer than Kelly Clarkson's snappy 2012 version.
greg@gregkot.com
