Earlier this month, before the first game of the Canadian Hockey League's Memorial Cup, singer Alexis Normand joined a long list of people who have brutalized the U.S. national anthem in front of a large, tense crowd.

Harper Gruzins, the 11-year-old girl behind what our own Tim Burke called the worst national anthem rendition ever in July, reached out to Deadspin earlier this month in November. Here's what she had to say:

The parents of 11-year-old Harper Gruzins are defending their daughter's performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Saturday's Galaxy-FC Dallas match, claiming critics who called it the worst national anthem performance ever are "mean and hateful."

Back in January, we brought you Steven Tyler's "Star-Spangled Banner" performance and asked how it stacked up to the worst-ever performances. (Your leading vote-getter was Roseanne's regrettable 1990 crotch-grabbing rendition.)

When I was a kid, I used to sing in the school choir. We had recitals for parents and teachers, and for the recitals we'd have to dress up in chinos and dress shirts, and the music teacher would arrange us along a set of risers, with all the tall boys in back and all the short girls in the front, our feet pointed…

While nowhere near as bad as any that made our suggestions for the Worst National Anthem Ever (indeed, if you caught Monica's tone-deaf rendition Saturday, you know it wasn't even the worst of the Final Four) The Fray's attempt at a hipster version of Marvin Gaye's "Star-Spangled Banner" fell awfully flat. If you were…

Maybe Steven Tyler's performance of the Star Spangled Banner before the AFC championship game was the worst rendition ever, maybe not. It's on the list, anyway. And the list jogged my memory: On Jan. 21, 1993, I was in Brendan Byrne Arena when Carl Lewis sang the National Anthem.