These School Choir Members on 18 Different Floors Singing the Nat'l Anthem Will Give You Chills
If you want some patriotic thrills to get your week into gear, you could certainly do worse than watching the Kentucky All-State High School Choir sing the national anthem in a hotel.
Yes, I know, this sounds about as patriotic to most people as watching a bad lounge act try to belt out “The Star-Spangled Banner” at 20 past 10 on a Tuesday night. Bear with me.
For one thing, the Kentucky All-State High School Choir is more talented than your average lounge singer. There’s also the fact that this is a yearly tradition for the group, so that’s something.
Oh, yeah — they also sang it on 18 different floors in the downtown Hyatt in Louisville. Colin Kaepernick, eat your heart out.
According to radio host Todd Starnes, the stirring rendition took place just before 11 p.m. on an early February night.
The students were in town for the Kentucky Music Educators Convention — and, as you can see, they managed to pretty well fill every balcony along the hotel’s atrium:
Those are some acoustics — and they make for a haunting, beautiful rendition of the national anthem.
This is a yearly tradition, as previously mentioned.
The first time this went viral is back in 2018, when a traveler caught it on video while hew as staying at the hotel.
“Had a proud #American moment tonight. Woke up in my hotel hearing a lot of noise outside in the lobby,” Garrett Mager wrote on Facebook. “I went out and found this. The Kentucky State Choir Finals schools are all staying at my hotel. They decided to sing the National Anthem together on every single floor. #Amazing.”
https://www.facebook.com/gmager/videos/10213808100174264
“I was sleeping in my room and then all of sudden I’m woken up by this racket and a bunch of kids,” Mager told the Louisville Courier Journal.
“I went outside on the balcony and asked them what they were doing and they said they were getting ready to sing the national anthem. So I watched and it was incredible.”
Mager posted it on a “whim.” Two years later, it has over 36 million views.
“All credit goes to the kids to showcase their vocal abilities and skills,” Mager said at the time. “They’ve probably worked really hard all year to get to this point and to be recognized on this kind of level is remarkable.”
Well, credit also goes to the educators at the KMEA for making this a tradition. After all, we live in a time when the national anthem isn’t quite en vogue.
Megan Rapinoe, the star striker for the U.S. Women’s National Team, didn’t take part in the national anthem during the World Cup last summer (and hasn’t for a while). She got plaudits and awards in spite of it.
Colin Kaepernick, when he was an employed man, took a knee during “The Star-Spangled Banner.” He started a trend that peaked during the fall of 2017 as a protest against the president.
There are constant demands he be employed by the league as a quarterback even after he apparently attracted no attention during a workout. Apparently, some people believe the NFL is a kind of make-work program for self-styled radicals who think Assata Shakur is pretty groovy.
At least the Kentucky All-State High School Choir understands something about how great America is — something that Colin Kaepernick and Megan Rapinoe could learn a thing or two from.
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