Rachel Platten has apologized for messing up the national anthem — not once, but twice — saying her “mind just went blank.”
“I feel really embarrassed, honestly. I’m having a hard time forgiving myself, but I’m working on it. It was incredibly, incredibly embarrassing,” Platten told People. “I’ve been trying to retrace steps of what happened … it has just been hanging over me.”
She added, “I have done it a bunch of times, but I stepped in front of the people and I felt the expectation. I was ready to open up and do it, and my mind just went blank. I was trying to explain it to my husband: It was like a test that you know all the material to, you study so much and you get in there, and your mind doesn’t cooperate.”
Platten, who is married to Kevin Lazan, performed the national anthem before Game 1 of the 2016 World Series.
“I was so nervous going into it. The anthem is such a big deal; it’s probably the most important song for our country,” she said. “I always get nervous because it means so much because it is so powerful. I always want to do it justice, do a good job and give people the exact version they expect and they want.”
On Saturday, the 36-year-old singer, best known for “Fight Song,” was set to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah before the NWSL soccer game between the Utah Royals and the Chicago Red Stars.
However, she had to restart the anthem twice because she forgot the words, according to multiple media reports. She nervously grinned at the audience at times, at which point they chimed in to help. Many fans tweeted that she still messed up the lyrics her third time around.
omg did rachel platten actually fuck up the national anthem
— B (@chiredstars) April 14, 2018
https://twitter.com/Nurse__Kel/status/985244654365966338
Between #RachelPlatten screwing up the National Anthem 3 times (including wrong lyrics) and #Lifetime cutting to #DanceMoms several times during the beginning… Bad day for #NWSL. They deserve better…
— Joy Sperlazzo Hammer (@joyeliya) April 14, 2018
It was awkward. Rachel Platten at the #URFC match. She was asking for help with opening line after the 2nd try, then sang it wrong a 3rd time & just kept going
— brett ?? (@brettbar) April 14, 2018
soooo this happened ??@UtahRoyalsFC@RachelPlatten
STILL MY FAVE SONG THO pic.twitter.com/KmhP7AHTV8— Mary Liesl (@bashuga1) April 14, 2018
“I’m trying to practice what I’ve been preaching: If I’m telling my fans to love yourself no matter what, I owe myself the same thing even though it’s really hard right now,” she said. “I’m human. This was a humongous and embarrassing mistake, but it was a mistake. My mind just wasn’t cooperating.”
She added, “I was proud that I was able to finish … I actually can’t believe I didn’t forget more words and that I was able to complete the song. So I’m kind of shocked. What I’m not going to do is run away. I really want to run out of the stadium right now, but I’m not going to do that. I’m going to finish this song.’”
On Sunday, Platten also took to social media to apologize for the flub. Watch another video of her performance above.
still feeling so embarrassed about this. I'm so sorry to everyone – once again.https://t.co/69mGL9t88N
— Rachel Platten (@RachelPlatten) April 17, 2018