Ingrid Andress sang ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ on July 15 and got a lot of criticism online. However, the criticism didn’t include the Halestorm singer Lzzy Hale. Instead, she took to Instagram to show her support for Andress about her ‘drunk’ performance.
Hale wrote:
“Ingrid Andress. I keep thinking about this poor girl and the national anthem gone horribly wrong. Whether she really does not have the ability yet to sing the national anthem, which even for the greatest of singers is a difficult song to pull off, or if she really was drunk… I have so much empathy right now for her because it sounds like she actually just had the wrong people around her, people she probably trusted blindly, but that didn’t have her back.”
She also mentioned her own problems as a singer and that having imperfect days was normal:
As a singer, performer, songwriter, artist, musician, a woman in this business, and as a human… I am incredibly lucky to be surrounded by people who love me and look out for me, people who aren’t afraid to have the hard talks, do the hard things, have the disagreements, people who have loved me through my darkest times and were willing to bear some of the weight and pain with me when I couldn’t carry all of it by myself.”
She added:
“We are all flawed, and we all have talents, we all have good days, we all have bad days. We all have times where we chose the wrong thing over the right thing. I hope that Ingrid takes the time to seek out her peace in all this, And I hope that she finds her tribe to surround herself by…people that will be brave enough to fight beside and for her…flying her banner.”
The singer finished her statement by sending a message to Andress:
“And to Ingrid, Don’t let this small moment in time define you. Where some chose to highlight and judge you in a vulnerable moment, there are those who want to help you let your best self shine.”
Andress Gained Her Biggest Streaming In Two Years
On July 15-16, right after her performance, Andress’ songs were streamed 1.2 million times in the U.S. Although ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ isn’t available to stream in her catalog, the county singer jumped from 370,000 on July 14 to almost a million on July 16 alone.
Her performance went viral on social media. Some clips showed players trying not to laugh, and others critiquing things like pitch problems. Many also compared it to Fergie’s 2018 NBA All-Star Game anthem, and that got mixed reviews too.
Andress’ Apology
After her performance went viral on the Internet, the singer shared a statement. In the statement posted the next day, she admitted she was drunk during the performance and said that she was heading to rehab voluntarily. She wrote on X:
“I’m not gonna bullsh*t y’all. I was drunk last night. I’m checking myself into a facility today to get the help I need. That was not me last night.”
She also apologized to MLB fans and continued:
“I apologize to MLB, all the fans, and this country I love so much for that rendition. I’ll let y’all know how rehab is I hear it’s super fun.”
You can see Hale’s statement about the performance here.