I think the first thing that everybody needs to understand is that the “new” version of the national anthem did not come at the request of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country. We cannot allow it to serve as the voice of all immigrants. The fact of the matter is that this is album is the brainchild of the CEO of a record label concerned with capitalizing on a volitle issue, not immigrant rights. I ask first and foremost that people do not mistake this with the sentiments of all immigrants. I am very confident that many Germans/Mexicans/Salvadorans etc…would take issue with their national anthem being sung in another language.
Having said that, I do not think this should be an issue at all. The point of the song is to celebrate freedom and liberty. The freedom and liberty that grants people the right to burn our flags, talk negatively about leaders, and oh yes, even re-interpret our national anthem. This version does not bastardize (as many comments have noted) the national anthem. For the most part, it is an exact translation of the original, intended to allow those who cannot speak English to understand why we love and cherish being Americans. We have no problem when Rosanne pokes fun at the song, or when Jimi Hendrix interprets it differently. Why is that? Is it because they were Americans, or rather, looked like Americans. The singers on this record are almost all American citizens. Why is this simply viewed as a different interpretation?
From Comments: (No. 55)
Music is not meant to be translated. It’s not about the language its translated into, its about the original language and the original meaning that makes music special and meaningful. I don’t care if you translate it into 50 languages, the song is still an English song.
Now changing the lyrics on the other hand, is downright wrong, especially if you are going to go on record and state that it is just another language version of a popular favorite.
Italian arias are written in Italian, but have English transliterations so that those unfamiliar with Italian can know what they are saying! The main difference is that the Italian songs are NOT then SUNG in Enlgish!
Subtitles never hurt anyone, and you can translate the SSB all you want, but don’t change it.
