The woman who sang 'God Save The King' ahead of England's win over Italy has apologised after the anthem was plagued by technical difficulties.
American-Italian star Ellynora was chosen to sing the English national anthem at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium in Naples on Wednesday night. The Three Lions had travelled to face the Azzurri in their opening game of qualification for Euro 2024.
And as is tradition before all international matches, the national anthems of both countries were sung. But fans were left baffled as a string of technical problems led to many branding it the 'worst anthem' ever.
Ellynora stumbled and lost her way throughout the song, with players also seen grimacing. She first appeared to miss the opening note, before fiddling with her earpiece, but was left stumbling.
After a massive backlash from fans in the stadium and the millions watching on TV, Ellynora has now issued an apology. She pointed the finger at the technical problems and insisted that she did not deliberately mess up.
"I’m just so angry with what happened because I wanted it to be perfect but what happened wasn’t my fault. I want to say sorry to all the England fans who were at the stadium and watching on TV," she told the Daily Mail.
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"I’m mortified for what happened and I want people to know that I wasn’t being disrespectful. It was such an honour to be asked to sing the national anthem and I was so excited about it. I’ve never sung anything like that before.
"I’m more of a pop artist but at the ground there was a sound issue. I had the music in my ear and then it stopped and started again, and I was hearing it twice, so it meant I was out of synch, and it was hard for me to catch up.
"I really tried my best to solve the problem but there was nothing I could do and I’m so angry about it. This was so annoying and upsetting for me, the fans are right to be angry and I’m so, so sorry."
England were quickly able to get over hearing the anthem get butchered though. Declan Rice put the Three Lions a goal up after just 13 minutes, capitalising on poor defending to fire in after Harry Kane's shot was blocked.
Kane then doubled his side's lead from the penalty spot, to become England's record goalscorer. Though Mateo Retegui pulled one back and Luke Shaw was sent off, England were able to hold on to all three points, leaving boss Gareth Southgate delighted.
"We showed two sides, without a doubt. We had great control from the back in the first half, and whenever we broke through that first line of pressure we looked really dangerous," he said.
"We should've had the game buried and been 3-0 at half time, and if you start any half of football the way we did in the second half you're going to be in trouble and we conceded a really poor goal with several errors in the lead up to it.
"In the end, they can reference something that they've had to grind a result away from home which is hugely important as it's a massive result but I prefer more of the first half than the second."
