Share and Follow
At many official ceremonies and public sporting events, it’s customary to kick off the festivities in the U.S. by playing the national anthem.
But at a recent graduation ceremony held outside in Seattle, instead of the familiar “broad stripes and bright stars” refrain emitting from the speakers, watchers were instead treated to hearing Iggy Azalea blasting forth.
As the crowd dutifully rose to stand in their seats following a prompt to “please rise for the national anthem,” gasps and a wave of cheers could be heard as the words of Izaela’s “Open Up the Safe, B*****s Got A Lot to Say” greeted their ears.
The song only played for a few seconds before quickly cutting to the correct and traditional national anthem, but it was long enough to get the crowd pumped.
Commenters on TikTok theorized that the song mix-up was most likely a senior prank, and others shared that similar mishaps had happened at their own schools.
“Last year it accidentally played cotton eyed joe as the graduates were walking,” wrote @y0y0_.rikki.
“Nah this actually happened at my school but with a Drake song,” added @itsvalenciab.
The tradition of playing the national anthem at U.S. graduation ceremonies is a long-honored one. It reportedly dates back to 1874, when it was first played at a U.S. Military Academy graduation ceremony. A handful of ceremonies then played the anthem until it really took hold following World War II, when the anthem began to be played more regularly as a sign of unity, a Michigan college professor told The College Fix.
Playing the Star-Spangled Banner” (the national anthem) is not an official requirement for graduation ceremonies, and more recently, some schools have elected to skip the patriotic melody altogether. For instance, in 2018, Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., made waves by being one of the first schools that elected not to play the national anthem at their graduation ceremonies.
Pomona College described their decision to skip the national anthem as one that was more reflective of their student population, which contained several students graduating as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals students. They also noted that skipping the song was an act of acknowledging that America is not the “land of the free” for all students.
Read Related Also: Heart of Stone Trailer: Gal Gadot, Jamie Dornan Star in Netflix Movie
Another California school, Cal State Long Beach, also reportedly skipped the national anthem in their spring graduation ceremonies, although no public announcement was made. Other students graduating have taken a stand against singing or participating in the national anthem, such as Liana Morales, who chose to sing “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” in 2020 at her high school graduation, and a group of students in Hawaii who chose not to stand when their high school played the U.S. national anthem during commencement.
Debates about the inclusivity of the national anthem aside, it remains a traditional musical accompaniment for a graduation ceremony. But if Iggy happens to be played “accidentally” at another commencement ceremony, TikTok commenters admitted that they wouldn’t be mad at the musical mix-up.
“Ok but can this actually be our national anthem,” asked @lizxxmarie55.
In The Know by Yahoo is now available on Apple News — follow us here!
More from In The Know:
Bride shocks guests by inviting ‘pandemic wedding couples’ to finally have their first dances: ‘This is so sweet’
What are ‘beige flags’ when it comes to dating and relationships?
7 cute and comfy sundresses from Target you can grab for less than $30 online
11 body washes that smell so good they basically double as perfume
Listen to the latest episode of our pop culture podcast, We Should Talk:
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,’script’,’
fbq(‘init’, ‘438394856737111’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
