harmonies,Against the backdrop of the US flag, The Chicks performed a rendition of the US national anthem on the last night of the Democratic National Convention. Billboard praised the “stunning a cappella version of the anthem filled with intricate, layered harmonies” and the performance received mostly positive reviews. Perhaps the most well-known and beloved song in the US is the patriotic Star-Spangled Banner.
The song’s backstory and the fact that it was the object of harsh criticism that denigrated it as a mere “drinking song” are less well known.
A 35-year-old American lawyer named Frances Scott Key observed as a flurry of British shells descended against Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor on the soggy evening of September 13, 1814. Key was negotiating the release of an American prisoner during the more than eighteen months that the War of 1812 had been ongoing. The British kept him on a ship eight miles off the coast out of fear that he knew too much. He was certain that the British would win because of the size of the attack and the reddening of the sky as night set.
