Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
State of Origin football is back for another year and Queensland started like a house on fire in the first half of the series-opener.
But if the Maroons were inspired by anything, it probably wasn’t the pre-game national anthem.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Fans shred national anthem performance ahead of Origin
Australian country artist Robbie Mortimer was given the honour of singing Advance Australia Fair in front of more than 80,000 Origin fans at Accor Stadium on Wednesday night.
But it’s fair to say his form wasn’t quite as good as the Maroons’.
Certainly not according to the fans watching at home, who have torched the performance.
“Didn’t realise the national anthem was called Edvence Estrelia Feair,” News Corp reporter Lachlan McKirdy said.
One person called it “a national anthem which sounded like a sick chainsaw slicing a bagpipe in half”.
“Over heard some shocking renditions of the Australian national anthem over the years, but that one takes the cake. That was horrendous. Whoever hired him is tone deaf,” another added.
Social media was flooded with similar comments.
“One of the WORST national anthems I’ve ever heard, butchered.”
“The national anthem was just murdered live on national television to start the State of Origin.”
“Possibly the worst signing of the national anthem I have ever heard.”
Hard to think of a more terrible rendition of the national anthem than what Robbie Mortimer just served up.’
“That national anthem was butchered like nothing I’ve ever heard before.”
One critic even used a pop culture reference in his assessment.
“Was that Robbie Mortimer or Enrico Palazzo singing Anthem at Origin tonight?” they said.
Enrico Pallazzo is an iconic fictional character from the 1988 comedy film The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
He is an acclaimed Italian opera singer who is impersonated by bumbling detective Frank Drebin while going undercover to thwart an assassination attempt on Queen Elizabeth II.
Detective Drebin knocks out the real Pallazzo and takes his place to sing The Star-Spangled Banner at a California Angels baseball game. He proceeds to horribly butcher the song, conducting with an ice pick and singing random, improvised lyrics.
