WASHINGTON — Music legend Aretha Franklin took her time during a performance of the national anthem before a Thanksgiving Day game between the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings. Accompanying herself on a grand piano inside Detroit’s Ford Field, the Queen of Soul stretched the “Star-Spangled Banner” into a nearly five-minute-long gospel tour-de-force, complete with rolling piano arpeggios and the divas’s famously throaty vocals.
Franklin’s extended version sparked a mixed reaction on social media. Some called it the best rendition they’d ever heard. https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/801842557097570304 Others poked fun at Franklin’s lengthy rendition of the famous tune.
I cooked my whole turkey, ate and did the dishes during Aretha Franklin’s National Anthem performance. — B. Miller (@BlaiseInKC) November 24, 2016
The Detroit native has won 18 Grammys in a career spanning more than 56 years. Some said the singing legend had earned the right to take it slow.
Aretha Franklin is pretty far up at the top of the list of folks who can take however long they want with the national anthem.
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) November 24, 2016
See more reactions to Franklin’s performance. The Lions beat the Vikings 16-13.