Country music band the Chicks were ripped for their “awful” rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” during the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention.
Bandmates Natalie Maines and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer took the stage inside the United Center in Chicago on Thursday for an a cappella version of the national anthem.
The musicians began their three-part harmony in similar keys before the three singers quickly hit different notes, with some viewers taking exception to their singing.
“Correction, the chicks butchered the national anthem, It was terrible,” one X user commented.
“That was just terrible-I mean an absolute terrible rendition,” another said.
“The big act was The Chicks who managed to mangle the National Anthem with an embarrassing off-key rendition.”
“It was that God-awful rendition of the national anthem by ‘the chicks.’”
“Was this the big surprise of the night? The washed up Dixie Chicks? LOL,” another X user wrote, referring to the rumor that Beyonce would appear in Chicago for a surprise performance.
“You think they would have learned to stay out of politics,” another social media comment said.
The band, which has sold millions of records since its formation in Dallas, Texas, in 1989, was faced with backlash for their comments criticizing then-President George W. Bush and the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
While performing in London on March 10, 2003, Maines told the audience she was “ashamed” of Bush.
“Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all,” Maines said just days before the invasion of Iraq. “We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.”
The band was known as the Dixie Chicks from their inception until 2020, when they changed their name to the current form, saying they wanted to distance themselves from “Dixie,” a word closely associated with the pre-Civil War South and slavery.
While social media users weren’t too impressed with Thursday night’s rendition, the 13-time Grammy Award-winning band received a standing ovation as the crowd inside the arena burst into a chant of “USA, USA.”
