Vote: Who Should Sing Anthem at Boilermaker Post Race Party?

WIBX is holding a contest to determine which singer receives the honor of singing the National Anthem at this year's Boilermaker Road Race Post Race Party. Usually, more than 40,000 people attend the finale' festivities.

We received several submissions from people interested in singing America's anthem in front of the large Utica crowd at the F.X, Matt Brewery on July 10, 2022. The list below includes those who have been selected as finalists. The winner will be announced on Wednesday morning at 7:30 am on WIBX. Voting is open until Tuesday night, July 5th at 11:59 p.m.. Listen to the finalists below, and be sure to cast your vote.

Click below on each singer to preview before you vote.

Aisilinn Angelton

Brett Hammes

Brooke Scarchilli

Dave Olney

Kristin Van Note

Meaghan Williams

Mike Jones

Rosa Commisso

Sydney Howlett

Vote for your favorite below. The public vote will serve as one of five votes in the final judging. Two votes belong to WIBX, the Boilermaker gets two votes and the public tally makes up the final fifth vote. All decisions by the judges (WIBX staff) are final.

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...

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.

_________________________________________________________

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.

According to wikipedia, the lyrics came from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the large U.S. flag, with 15 stars and 15 stripes, known as the Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the fort during the U.S. victory.

The song was eventually adopted as the United States National Anthem, but not until March 3, 1931. Hail Columbia, My Country 'Tis of Thee, and America the Beautiful would serve as unofficial anthems for America prior to 1931.