I went to the Blues game tonight and something surprising happened, not quite related to the game.

We played the Canadiens, and so a singer came onto the ice to lead the singing of both anthems: Canada's and ours. She sang Canada's mostly in French -- probably the custom in Quebec. When it came time to sing our anthem, she invited the spectators to sing with her.

And people actually sang.

I have been going to Blues games for the past two years or so, and every prior singer tried to make our anthem his or her own. By stretching the meter, taking liberty with the notes, and singing in the key of J, they have each made it inconvenient if not impossible to sing along with them. Each of them has essentially invited us to watch and listen while they sang our song.

This singer tonight simply led us in song -- in a nice, low key that everybody could just about sing (we have a difficult anthem, but it's worth trying).

If I want to see somebody sing by him or herself, I'll tune in American Idol.

Meanwhile, Blues, please keep getting singers who actually want us to sing the national anthem. It is our anthem and it's about time we took it back and started singing it again.