Want to Sing the National Anthem at the Boiler Post Race Party?

How would you like to sing the National Anthem in front of thousands of people at this year's Boilermaker Post Race Party? You could be the one if you enter the "Sing the Anthem" contest from WIBX coming up later this month.

A live audition will be held on Wednesday, June 28th at 6 p.m. at Babe's at Harbor Point on North Genesee Street in Utica. The event is sponsored by the Boilermaker, WIBX's Keeler in the Morning, and WUTR Eyewitness News.

Singing will begin at 6 at Babe's and singers will be asked to belt out at least part (or all) of America's National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. Following all of the auditions, the judges will collaborate and select one person and an alternate to sing the anthem at the Post Race Party. The tradition over the years has been a flyover at the precise moment that the anthem concludes. So far, there's no confirmation of a flyover at this year's event.

To get into the running, simply show up at 6 p.m. on June 28th at Babe's on North genesee Street.

Did You Know Francis Scott Key's Star Spangled Banner had 4 verses? And, initially it was a poem, not a song.

Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key

Key's song (or poem) about America's flag did indeed have 4 verses. The United States National Anthem is only one verse.

Here are the words to the original poem...

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there, O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,'Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore, That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion A home and a Country should leave us no more?Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slaveFrom the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave, And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth waveO'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation! Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto - "In God is our trust," And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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The music to the National Anthem was written in 1773 by John Stafford Smith. Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the poem in 1814.

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Aisilinn Angelton

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