Ahhh, the All-Star Game. As a never-practicing sports fan, it’s my favorite time of the baseball season! (Wait, the All-Star game is baseball, right?) I always find something to write about from the seminal night in sports, like last year when I ruffled feathers by commenting on President Obama’s dad jeans, and this year is no different. To boot, let’s talk about the most important thing from the game: the musical performances! Amber Riley opened the show—errr, game—with a rendition of our National Anthem, which you can watch after the jump, and then added her performance of Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” that won her raves in Glee. Two-time Grammy winner Colbie Caillat sang during the seventh-inning stretch, belting her take on “God Bless America.” Watch Riley do her thing here:
And here’s Riley’s “Beautiful”:
And I’m not finding an embeddable clip of Caillat’s “God Bless America,” but you can check it out on MLB’s website. Did the performances make the game worth watching? Sound off in the comments!
(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix. Follow Tanner on Twitter: @EWTanStransky.)
More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
‘DJ Hero 2′: Check out the exclusive list of artists here!
Picture of Lady Gaga at John Lennon’s piano lands on Twitter; Beatles fans freak out
Usher puts his lady to bed in ‘There Goes My Baby’ video: Watch here
Robbie Williams to reunite with Take That, film ‘Brokeback Mountain’-themed comeback video
The Fugs’ Tuli Kupferberg dies at 86
It’s COLBIE Caillat, dude. Not ‘Cobie’.
i dont know what you were reading but he definetley said Colbie not Cobie
COLBIE Caillat, EW. Nice.
I remember when the All-Star game would broadcast the singing of “O Canada,” too. I don’t know if the motivations for cutting it out are jingoistic or motivated by $$$ (squeezing in ONE more commercial), but I miss it a lot.
I watched the international feed on Sportsnet in Canada. They showed the Canadian Tenors singing it. Aside from some wonky sound issues (not sure how it sounded in the park, but on tv it didn’t translate well), they did a beautiful job.
Amber Riley sounded awful. As a music student I could only listen to about half of it. Someone that stars on a show all about singing should be able to do better than she did last night. I would have rather listened to an unknown person who could sing in tune than listen to an over-ambitious “celebrity” sing flat.
I love when “music students” give their comments. So insightful. She sounded great!
She did sound a bit flat, didn’t she? I could tell she was uncomfortable with how she sounded…she didn’t seem to be able to hear herself well.
Oh dear, music student? I guess the folks at Glee should have hired you instead, right? Can’t wait for you to win Idol. That attitude will get you far! Shine on, you crazy diamond.
yea…a bit flat in the beginning of the anthem but beautiful was good…in my opinion…but the anthem was def. flat at parts…nd that colin dude def. went hard for NO REASON…she did not by far sound AWFUL she was good…i bet better than you
Check the beginning of “Beautiful” and you can tell Amber couldn’t hear herself. You can see where she reaches behind her back – she was trying to adjust the volume on her sound pack. This happens A LOT in stadiums. I just tend to chalk it up to technical difficulty.
I could listen to Colbie Caillat sing the phone book
If you’re going to write a review of something that takes place during a sporting event (or anything else for that matter), don’t lead off by basically saying you know nothing about the subject and then blow off your lack of knowledge as if it’s nothing important.
Wow. I love Amber Riley’s voice. She’s so good, it gave me goosebumps!
Oh no! Amber was not hitting those notes at all. Disappointing! I love her and expected much more.
Amber was spectacular, words will have to be invented to describe just how good she is.
I have to say, I love Amber as well, but let’s call it like it is…………..not very good at all.
I’m a Glee fan but none of my other friends who watched the all Star Game care. It’s just Fox cross promotion.
that chick’s fatter than I am….mamamba
Why do some singers feel they have to embellish our national anthem as Amber did? The MLB would have done better to have Amber’s new Glee castmate Charice sing it. Last year @ LA Dodger’s opening game Charice sang the Star Spangled Banner which resulted in rave reviews by sports writers. One writer said Charice’s rendition was better than the game itself. Joe Torre who was standing next to Charice was moved to tears by her singing of our national anthem. 57,000 remained standing at the conclusion of her performance and applauded her.
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