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Will Femia is a Weblog enthusiast who, through good fortune and dumb luck, was introduced to the form as his position as chat producer for MSNBC.com careered into obsolescence. On any given day, Will can be found having already spent an unhealthy amount of time squinting at a computer screen.

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That woman who sang the black national anthem instead of the regular one

Posted: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 4:24 PM by Will Femia
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I saw a link on a few political blogs to a statement by Rene Marie. Clueless, I thought to myself, "Gee, there's a jazz singer named Rene Marie too." Actually, that's the same one. Rene Marie is the lady who caused all the fuss when she decided to sing the black national anthem instead of the actual national anthem to introduce the Denver mayor's State of the City address.

Realizing who she is and being somewhat familiar with her music brings a little more clarity to the story. The first time I heard Rene Marie was through her medley of Strange Fruit and Dixie. After searching all over the place I finally found a full free version of it on Rhapsody. It's the tenth one down on this list or, if we're lucky, this link will pop it up in their player.

Seriously, set aside what you think the anthem story and give it a listen. Totally worth it.

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Comments

As a resident of Denver, there is no way that I would listen to Rene Marie, no matter how good of a singer she is.  I heard parts of her "rendition," and while I do think she has a beautiful voice, I can not support her total disregard for the Mayor of Denver, or the city itself.

Chris Johnson, Denver, CO (Sent Wednesday, July 09, 2008 5:47 PM)

If you are invited to sing the National Anthem at a prestigious event, and then turn the event into a forum for your own personal aggrandisement, to the detriment of the people that extended to you a great honor, you are little better than a human piece of trash.

Steve, AR (Sent Thursday, July 10, 2008 3:55 PM)

I'm all for Freedom of expression, but her disregard for why she was invited, and what she was expected to perform, negates her arguments for artistic expression. If a catering service won the bid to cater the event by offering to serve filet mignon, but served hot dogs on cold buns, they would be called on it. Likewise she was brought to perform a service for the Mayor and community, but instead turned the stage into her social stump.

Larry Cathey, Memphis, TN (Sent Thursday, July 10, 2008 5:20 PM)

I agree with Chris.  Rene can sing what she wants on her own time.  She agreed to sing The National Anthem.  She was not being noble here, she was being dishonest.

Henry (Sent Friday, July 11, 2008 4:06 PM)

To me this is yet another example of arrogance in the artistic community.  As Frank Zappa once said, "Shut up and play your guitar" (not that he was one to follow his own advice).  Having enormous talent as a singer does not give you this sort of license.  Without a doubt, Ms. Marie is a talented singer, but really what does singing talent really add to this world?  These people need to appreciate that the fane that they receive is way out of proportion to what they contribute, relative to top biologists or physicists or mathematicians.

KRW (Sent Friday, July 11, 2008 9:46 PM)

Another deceitful, dishonest, self-absorbed "artist" who was invited to sing for others because she was thought of as someone worthy of such a task. I love it when someone tricks other people or lies to them and tries to hide behind the old "I'm just an artist"....yeah, a mighty fine magician.  Instead of being honored, humbled, and thankful for being offered a unique opportunity, she turned it into "Renee Marie Day".   And the fact that she tricked a group that graciously invited her to sing for them makes it very hard to believe she didn't do this as a publicity stunt even though she said she didn't. It's hard to believe someone who was so deceitful.  Why can't she just have the courage to stand up and say "I had every intention of making this about me and my opinion. I saw an opportunity to create free publicity to draw attention to me. This has been the best career move I have every made. My website nearly went down due to too much traffic."

Keith (NY) (Sent Saturday, July 12, 2008 7:55 AM)

If she lived in a Black Nation..... no problem.  But my understanding is that we live in the United States... not the White or the Black United States.

John Phipps, Shoreline, WA (Sent Monday, July 14, 2008 2:32 PM)



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