I am guessing someone somewhere had a look at my recent comments – or those of Franz Beckenbauer or Felix Magath, perhaps – on the subject of the singing of Nationalhymne by the German players. Short of not playing it at all, what could be a quick and easy way of making people not sing? Get Sarah Connor to warble the wrong words? Nah, done that.
No… Let’s get… A local bagpipe band to have a go. Let’s also get them to play the wrong notes on an instrument clearly not made for such a melody, resulting in something completely out of key that sounds like the neighbourhood felines on a hot summer evening. Not even Manuel Neuer could deal with that!
One has to listen to it again just to see how horrible it sounds. Granted, it was a whole lot better than German X-Factor Judge Connor’s curious “Brüh’ im Lichte dieses Glückes” version sung at the opening of the Allianz-Arena in May 2005, but it still had me wanting to scrape myself from the ceiling. One can only imagine what the players felt when they heard those first bum notes being squeezed out.
I’m no hater of the happy old Dudelsack. Greensleeves can sound positively ethereal, and I have heard some fantastic renditions of Abide With Me. But on this rendition of the German Nationalhymne, poor Joseph Haydn is probably spinning in his grave.
To those who may not know, Sarah Connor is the name of not only the woman with silly eighties hair turned hard case in The Terminator. She’s also a best-selling (why, Gerd only knows) performer in Germany. Deutschland’s version of Cheryl Cole, but more blonde.
It sounds bizarre!! Let’s just hope Germany doesn’t play Australia down under and have a rendition of the anthem on didgeridoo 🙂