World Series National Anthem 3-for-1 debate

Game 1: Phillip Phillips, American Idol winner http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?co...46071&c_id=mlb
Game 2: Matthew Morrison, Glee actor Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | WS2012 Gm2: 'Glee' star Morrison sings anthem - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia
Game 3: Zooey Deschanel, New Girl actress Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | WS2012 Gm3: Zooey Deschanel sings the national anthem - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia
Game 4: Demi Lovato, X-Factor judge Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | WS2012 Gm4: Demi Lovato sings the national anthem - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia

1. Who sang it best?
2. Detroit's own Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, was scheduled to sing for Game 5. Besides her, the others were all stars of Fox shows. Would you call this acceptable draw-in-an-audience scheduling, abuse of network power, or something else?
3. Is our National Anthem an appropriate venue for show-off theatrics, or should singers stick to the original tune & pacing?

In order, Matthew Morrison, Phillip Phillips, Zooey Deschanel, Demi Lovado. Matthew was powerful, on key, not too slow, not fancy, just sang it the way it was written. Demi at the other end was too flowery and showed too much personal influence on the song. I'm all for singers putting their own unique sound on an anthem, but I don't think singing an anthem is the right time or place to show off their vocal acrobatics. I posted about this re Christina Aguilera singing the national anthem (I can't remember at what sporting event though). It was like 'damn girl, tone it down. We all know you have awesome pipes.'

1. I think Matthew was best and he came very close to nailing it; he faltered a bit at one point but not enough to be a real fault. Philip without the guitar would have been great; the fact that you can pick a few notes doesn't mean you should do it during the National Anthem, especially since the guitar didn't seem to change chords when he did. Zooey was pretty good but she needs to work on her breath control; you could barely hear her on the low notes, and it drives me batty when singers take a breath in the middle of "and the rockets red glare." Demi was hideous, too flowery and often off-key.

2. Abuse of power. Detroit</SPAN> and San Francisco both have a long history of putting out great music. Showcase the local talent. There was so much trash talk about our garlic fries and clam chowder sourdough bowls, what about a kick-*** music showdown? I give you Pat Monahan of Train, Huey Lewis & The News, and the Grateful Dead (would it be that hard to bring Jerry Garcia back from the dead?) for starters.

3. I'm fine with holding a high note for a little longer, and I'm fine with singing it faster or slower, but don't mess around with it too much. Even Whitney Houston played it straight and it was all the better for her restraint, kwim?