logo
Ingrid Andress Will 'Never' Perform National Anthem Again. How She's Moving on After Botched Performance (Exclusive)

Ingrid Andress Will 'Never' Perform National Anthem Again. How She's Moving on After Botched Performance (Exclusive)

Yahoo27-03-2025

Ingrid Andress admits she was nervous when she appeared on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry this month. No wonder: It was her first time to sing on a stage after her drunken performance of the national anthem went viral last July and led to a month in rehab. Of course she wanted nothing to go wrong with this comeback.
But one verse into 'Lady Like' while accompanying herself on piano, the 33-year-old artist abruptly stopped singing.
'Hold on,' she said, yanking off her right boot as she explained to the crowd that her high heel was interfering with her piano play. 'I couldn't hit the pedal!'
Days later, she's lamenting the glitch to PEOPLE, annoyed that it occurred 'the one time I'm coming back to redeem myself.'
Ah, well. Worse things could have happened.
'Truly! Worse things have happened!' Andress says with a hearty laugh — something that shows itself frequently now, eight months removed from the botched anthem that she calls 'my worst nightmare come true.'
Related: Ingrid Andress Says She Was 'Crying Every Day' During Rehab Stay: 'I Felt So Raw' (Exclusive)
The Opry actually wasn't Andress' first stop as she re-enters public life. That was reserved for a Denver Avalanche hockey game on Feb. 28, where she delivered a redemptive performance of 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' This time she nailed it.
She calls that 'the second anthem,' then corrects herself: 'the last one.' After what she's been through, she's not about to tempt fate. 'I'm never performing that song again — ever,' she says, her tart wit fully intact.
That chapter is closed, but it's left her feeling vulnerable. The next chapter is beginning slowly. So far, Andress has released one new single, 'Footprints,' her first new music in over a year, and she's booked just two shows, in April in her home state of Colorado.
'I wanted to do some Colorado shows for my fans, just to ease back in,' she says. 'I didn't want to do like, 'We're back, baby!' and pretend nothing's changed. No, let's start small and see how we feel.'
Related: Ingrid Andress Returns to Spotlight to Sing National Anthem 7 Months After Fumbled Performance, Rehab Check-In
The performance at the Opry, where she's appeared several times before, offered her a first sample, and she says, 'It was really nice to be back in a familiar setting. The Opry is very welcoming, and everyone wants you to do well.'
Indeed, the reception was warm enough for her to risk a brief allusion to her viral moment. 'I'm definitely not a perfect person — as we've all found out,' she playfully told the audience when she introduced 'Footprints.' The comment evoked a ripple of sympathetic laughter.
Despite all the upheaval of the past year, Andress says, she still feels like 'who I am, at my core, is still me.' What has changed is new healthful behaviors. Alcohol, she now understands, is a hindrance, not a help. Instead, she's learning how to process her feelings rather than numb them, to take better steps to self-care.
Perhaps most important, she's learning how to give herself grace when she makes mistakes. In therapy, she says, she realized that, growing up in a strict Christian household, she had somehow come to believe that making mistakes meant 'I had failed as a human being.'
One reason she selected 'Footprints' as her first single, she says, is that its lyrics mean something so different to her now than when she wrote them two years ago. Initially, she thought the tender ballad was presenting herself as a role model, encouraging her four siblings to successfully takes risks just as she had. But, she says, 'It felt more meaningful for me to release it now when I feel like, 'Hey, you can royally f--- up and still keep going.'
Discovering that herself, during her time off, was crucial. 'Resilience is probably one of the best superpowers I've been granted,' she says with obvious pride.
Andress says she deliberately chose to restart her public life, six months after rehab, only when she 'got to a place of like, oh, I enjoy myself. I like who I am, separate from anything that I do.'
But at heart, she also knows her artistry is part of what defines her, and she remains passionate about her music. She admits she had a fleeting moment during her downtime when she thought about abandoning the stage and turning exclusively to songwriting, which is what brought her to Nashville over a decade ago.
'But then I remember how I got into being an artist,' she says, 'and I'd probably just repeat the same thing, writing more personal songs that are more my story, and then I would not want other people to sing them. And then we'd be back to where we are now!'
Related: Ingrid Andress 'Felt Like America's Punching Bag' After Drunken, Botched National Anthem: 'My Worst Moment'
Better, she's decided, to focus on new ways to manage her life. That includes a fitness routine — tennis and yoga are go-to pursuits — and other healthful habits.
'Hydration and sleep and activity do wonders,' she says. 'And cross-stitching … It's very therapeutic.'
What about therapy itself?
'Once a week, baby!' she enthuses. 'We're keeping it moving.'
These days, life also means being single. 'I would probably not know what to do with another romantic human at this point,' she says with a laugh.
Andress is adjusting to life without alcohol, as well, and she takes her guidance from the 12-step approach: 'I am very much a 'one day at a time' person.'
She refuses to think of alcohol as the enemy. 'You have to take ownership of the fact that you're still choosing to do that to yourself,' she says. 'So, to me, I don't want to give that kind of power to anything. At the core of everyone's substance abuse is a human struggle.'
Now that she's on the other side of surviving her 'worst fear,' Andress is finding so much of her music sounds different to her now. 'Footprints' is hardly the only song with fresh meaning.
Her signature anthem, 'Lady Like,' for example, has become less a proclamation of her power — and her flaws — and more a statement of fact: 'At first, I was like, this is who I am, and hear me roar. Now when I sing it, it does resonate on such a deeper level because I feel even more comfortable saying it.'
Several songs on her last album, 2022's Good Person, also resonate differently to their maker. Of course Andress sees the irony in the title now, given the impression so many people were left with after that fateful day last July. But more significantly, she says she's setting aside the question that she poses in the title song.
Is she a 'good person'?
'Oh, I still don't know what that means,' she says with a laugh.
Then she quiets to give herself a long moment's thought. 'I try to be, and I think at my core I am,' she says, but she adds, 'I try not to look at things anymore based on good or bad. It's just like, it is. It just is. And that opens up a whole other fun place to go with your brain.'
Read the original article on People

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Rising Country Star Apologizes After Embarrassing Onstage ‘Oopsie'
Rising Country Star Apologizes After Embarrassing Onstage ‘Oopsie'

Miami Herald

time3 days ago

  • Miami Herald

Rising Country Star Apologizes After Embarrassing Onstage ‘Oopsie'

Ella Langleyhas been on the country music scene for a hot minute, and she's still learning a few things. First, make sure to get everyone's name correct. Langley released her debut single, "Perfect," in 2018. From there, the Alabama native relocated to Nashville to take her country music career to the next level. In a few short years, she signed with Sony Music Nashville, made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry, and released her first studio album, Hungover. So far, her highest charting hit is "You Look Like Love Me," and the sky's the limit on this young talent. However, with her career taking off, she let the excitement get the better of her. During a recent stop on Riley Green'sDamn Country Music Tour, Langley, who opened for Green, shouted out the night's other opening acts. She gave love to Wyatt McCubbin and Hudson Westbrook… …except, it wasn't Westrbook that performed. It was Vincent Mason. "I made an oopsie, and the problem is, the oopsie was so strange, because I have no idea why," said Langley in a TikTok apology. She recapped the night and how she first gave a shout-out to Wyatt McCubbin. "And I then I said 'Hudson Westbrook,' and then everyone was like, 'woo!' but kind of confused. And I was like, 'why are you confused?'" she said. "Because I knew it was Vincent Mason, but, for some reason, I said Hudson Westbrook." "So, public apology. Sorry. Sorry, Vincent. Hudson, shout out to you! And Vincent, sorry," she concluded. Thankfully, there were no hard feelings. Langley's video ends with her and Mason sharing a hug. "I'm not used to having openers perform for me at all. I'm used to being the first one," she explained. And Mason chimed in the comment section. "Literally, who is Vincent Mason?" he jokes. "No idea," added Langley. Even Hudson Westbrook got in on the fun. "I'll take the shout out any day," wrote the 20-year-old country singer. Related: Singer, 27, Reveals How a Heavy Metal Icon Taught Him To Be a 'Rock Star' Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Beyonce brings the Cowboy Carter Tour to London
Beyonce brings the Cowboy Carter Tour to London

Yahoo

time4 days ago

  • Yahoo

Beyonce brings the Cowboy Carter Tour to London

The Cowboy Carter Tour has arrived in London with Beyonce set to kick off a run of six shows on Thursday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The 43-year-old singer, who just played five dates in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will perform on Thursday and then again on June 7, 10, 12, 14, and 16. Beyonce last graced UK stages in 2023 during the Renaissance World Tour, which saw her play five dates at the same London venue. So far in the tour, Beyonce's set has seen her perform classic hits such as Love On Top, If I Were A Boy and Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It), along with tracks from her latest album, which saw her move into country music, including Texas Hold 'Em, 16 Carriages and II Most Wanted. The Houston-born star has also been performing covers of The Beatles' Blackbird and Dolly Parton's Jolene. Doors are expected to open at 5pm for the show, and the singer has not had a support act on the tour so far. Following the UK gigs, the singer will move on to Paris, where she will play three nights at the Stade De France, before returning to the US to conclude the tour. Beyonce announced the London dates after finally winning the album of the year Grammy this year for Cowboy Carter, her eighth studio album, released in March 2024. The tour began in April in the US in Inglewood, California. She also won the best country album Grammy as well as the country duo/group performance award for her song featuring Miley Cyrus, titled II Most Wanted. The singer had previously failed to secure the best album prize with 2008's I Am … Sasha Fierce, 2013's Beyonce, 2016's Lemonade and 2022's Renaissance, and dedicated her win to Linda Martell, who features on the album, who was the first black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. The 67th Grammy Awards, held in February, saw the singer extend her lead as the most decorated artist in the event's history with 35 awards. In March, the King hailed Beyonce as 'exceptional' during his online radio show, The King's Music Room, and congratulated her on her first album of the year Grammy. Beginning her career alongside Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams in Destiny's Child during the 1990s, Beyonce has gone on to have six UK number one singles and five UK number one albums. She married rapper Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, in 2008, and the couple have three children – Blue Ivy, Rumi and Sir.

Iconic Champaign County native receiving posthumous award in Nashville
Iconic Champaign County native receiving posthumous award in Nashville

Yahoo

time4 days ago

  • Yahoo

Iconic Champaign County native receiving posthumous award in Nashville

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — A woman originally from the Miami Valley is receiving a posthumous award in Nashville, Tennessee for her contributions to Christian and country music. During the 43rd Annual Sunday Mornin' Country at the Grand Ole Opry on June 8, Margo Smith will be posthumously inducted into the Ohio Country Music Hall of Fame. At the event, her daughter, Holly Watson, will accept on behalf of her mother. Smith was born in Mutual, Champaign County, as Bette Lou Miller in 1939. While in the area, she spent time as a kindergarten teacher and obtained a degree from Wittenberg University. Watson told that music came naturally to her mother. 'She always loved music and always sang in high school,' said Watson. 'She was in a little music group with a friend of hers and called themselves Corey and Sadie, the Apple Sisters, and they would wear like burlap sacks.' Smith believed she had more potential with singing after singing to her students. 'She would sing to her students, her little kids,' Watson said. 'When they would get really unruly, she would take out her ukulele and start singing and yodeling, and it just captured their attention and she kind of got them to behave and listen.' One of the places Smith started out with showing her talent professionally was at the Crystal Pistol on North Broad Street in Fairborn. When Smith was in her 30s, she headed to Nashville to try and make it as a singer-songwriter. She knocked on some of the agency doors, and eventually landed a recording contract. The artist had her name legally changed from Bette Lou to Margo when she signed her record deal, as she was told she couldn't use her own name in the country music world. 'Don't Break the Heart That Loves You,' 'It Only Hurts For a Little While' and 'Little Things That Mean a Lot' are some songs Smith was best-known for, according to Spotify. Smith has been featured on a number of national broadcasts of shows like 'Hollywood Squares,' 'Larry's Country Diner,' 'Pop! Goes the Country,' 'The Porter Wagoner Show' and others. In the 1990s, Watson joined her mother to become a Christian Country Duo called 'Margo Smith and Holly.' In 1994, they received Vocal Duo of the Year from the Christian Country Music Association. 'They didn't quite know what to do with our music because Christian country, it was a thing, but it hadn't become really popular,' said Watson. 'And so we were marketed in the Southern gospel sector.' Smith earned the name 'The Tennessee Yodeler' during her career, as she helped pave the way for music, especially yodeling. On Jan. 23, 2024, Smith passed away. Watson said she believes the award she is accepting for her mother would mean the world to her, as she adored her Ohio heritage. 'I think it would mean a tremendous amount to her just to be recognized by the people of Ohio, her home state, because, you know, we're all a product of we we are a product of our upbringing and and the places that we've lived and the experiences that we've had,' said Watson. According to Watson, receiving the award on behalf of her mother is something she is grateful to do to honor her mother's legacy. 'I'm just thrilled to be able to accept it on her behalf. And anything I can do to honor my mama and has people remember her,' said Watson. You can share memories of listening or even interacting with Smith here. To find various videos of Smith's performances, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store