Singer sends cheeky message to England fans after 'butchering' national anthem

Football fans tuning into Thursday’s game between England and Italy were left a little bemused during the national anthem, which got off to a very bumpy start.

Harry Kane and the rest of the team stood ready to sing God Save the King, but things didn’t go off as planned.

Singer Ellynora was the one performing the song ahead of Euro 2024 qualifier, but appeared to lose her place and restarted the anthem, leaving fans at home and in the stadium confused.

Following the reaction on social media, she had a cheeky message to fans after being accused of butchering the performance.

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In the aftermath, the singer posted a since-deleted selfie with two fingers up to the camera and added the caption: "England, I hope you enjoyed my gift."

Ellynora spoke to the Daily Mail about the event, saying it was down to a technical fault inside the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.

ellynorofficial/Instagram

She said: "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, 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.”

She added: "I had rehearsed the anthem twice the day before the match and then on the night three times but when it came to the actual performance, I had a problem with my earpiece.

"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. I was trying to adjust my singing to catch up with the anthem in the stadium, but it was too late."

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