In just three days, Super Bowl XLVI will be under way in Indianapolis. There will be touchdowns, Madonna, M.I.A., LMFAO, maybe Cee Lo Green, bets won and bets lost. There will also be flags flown and an anthem sung, as is the custom for big American sports spectacles. This, to many, is the biggest of them all, and the very worthy Kelly Clarkson will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner”, bringing her range and power to a song that many have attempted but few have mastered.

There have been some incredible — and some unforgivable — versions of the national anthem sung at football games past. Take a trip down memory lane with us while we recap the five very best and the five very worst.

THE 5 WORST NATIONAL ANTHEM PERFORMANCES FOOTBALL HAS EVER SEEN

5. Christina Aguilera changes the lyrics at Super Bowl XLV. For all the flack Xtina got for flubbing the lyrics at the opening of the game, her vocal performance was pretty solid. Sure, she missed that “o’er the ramparts we watched” line (and replaced it with the arguably more patriotic “what so proudly we watched”), but the slip-up was nearly undetectable. We’ll take the wrong words with the right sentiment over an empty expanse of dead air anytime.

4. Lauren Alaina freezes — and not from the cold — at the Lions vs. Packers game. Not too far into the former American Idol contestant’s Thanksgiving performance, she… pretty much fumbled. Alaina took a somewhat lengthy pause (the TV equivalent of “an eternity”) to get herself back together. She pulled it off in the end, and, as she responded in a comment after the performance, “at least [she] didn’t fall down.”

3. Steven Tyler screeches at the Ravens vs. Patriots AFC Championship game. What’s most confounding about Steven Tyler’s 2012 performance is the juxtaposition of how horribly strained the American Idol judge’s voice is and how loud the crowd seems to be cheering.

2. Josh Groban and Flea join forces at the 2010 Rose Bowl BCS National Championship. Groban singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” sounds like a recipe for success, right? But pairing him with another massively successful artist, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist Flea, added up to a mind-bogglingly WTF result.

1. Kat Deluna gets booed. The pop singer took to the field at the opening of a Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles game in September of 2008, and apparently decided it was the right day to play diva. Deluna’s pitchy, overwrought performance was a sure-fire crowd-displeaser, and the audience was not shy about voicing its dissatisfaction.

THE 5 BEST NATIONAL ANTHEM PERFORMANCES FOOTBALL HAS EVER SEEN

5. Kelly Clarkson does America proud on Thanksgiving. Perhaps this is a little preview of what we have to look forward to on Super Bowl Sunday. Kelly has a bit more experience under her belt since this 2006 Thanksgiving Day performance, but her control and range are on full display here. Also, the pom-pom flag re-creation is just adorable.

4. Faith Hill keeps it classy at Super Bowl XXXV in 2001. The combination of Faith’s understated pitch perfection and the kids doing that kind of Napoleon Dynamite interpretive dance earned the flawless country crossover star our #4 spot.

3. Beyoncé brings the players to tears at Super Bowl XXXVII. This performance should be required viewing for any singer planning to step anywhere near a field with a microphone. In 2004, Beyoncé displayed the essential grace and poise that performing the anthem demands (particularly in wartime). And she did so while showcasing the full power of her pipes. Watch closely, and you can see at least one player with a shaky lip and teary eyes.

2. Dixie Chicks create perfect harmony at Super Bowl XXXVII. The same year they sparked controversy by making anti-President Bush comments at a London performance, the Dixie Chicks performed our second favorite rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” (The year was 2003, FYI.) These ladies obviously love their country, and lend a sense of solemnity to the well-worn tune.

1. Whitney Houston sets the gold standard at Super Bowl XXV. The only word that can be used to describe this performance is: flawless. Whitney sang the anthem in 1991, when America was still at war in the Persian Gulf. This was the singer at her prime, and the rendition was later released as a charity single, with Houston donating her profits to help soldiers returning home. The single was re-released after September 11, 2001 and reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, with Houston once again donating the proceeds from sales to help firefighters and other victims of the attacks.

What is your favorite national anthem performance of all time? Do you agree with our picks for worst of all time? Tell us in the comments, or on Twitter and Facebook.

— Reporting by Maud Deitch

During Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech, she rattled off all the other artists who’ve made surprise appearances during her Speak Now Tour, including Justin Bieber, Usher, Nelly and Nicki Minaj. “One of my favorite things about this year is the camaraderie between all these artists that, I’d just make a phone call and say, hey, do you wanna come sing with me,” Swift said. “There were a lot of artists who just showed up out of the goodness of their heart — came out and performed for the fans at my shows.”

Meanwhile, married country stars Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert had much to celebrate — not only did Miranda’s latest LP Four The Record land a #3 debut on the Top 200 this week, they respectively won Male and Female Vocalist Of The Year at last night’s CMAs.

One particular highlight came when Lionel Richie (!) performed a medley with Little Big Town, Darius Rucker and Rascal Flatts frontman Gary LeVox that included “Deep River Woman”, “Stuck on You” and “Dancing on the Ceiling.”

Lionel Richie with Little Big Town, Darius Rucker & Gary LeVox — Medley at 2011 CMA Awards

Below is the full list of winners from the night, plus a few highlights from the telecast.

2011 CMA AWARDS: The Winners

Entertainer Of The Year: Taylor Swift
Song Of The Year: “If I Die Young” – The Band Perry (songwriter: Kimberly Perry)
Single Of The Year: “If I Die Young” – The Band Perry
Album Of The Year: My Kinda Party – Jason Aldean
Male Vocalist Of The Year: Blake Shelton
Female Vocalist Of The Year: Miranda Lambert
Vocal Duo Of The Year: Sugarland
Vocal Group Of The Year: Lady Antebellum
Musician Of The Year: Mac McAnally
New Artist Of The Year: The Band Perry
Musical Event Of The Year: “Don’t You Wanna Stay” – Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson
Music Video Of The Year: “You And Tequila” – Kenny Chesney featuring Grace Potter

Taylor Swift — “Ours” at 2011 CMA Awards

Taylor Swift wins Entertainer Of The Year at 2011 CMA Awards

Brad Paisley & Carrie Underwood — “Remind Me” at 2011 CMA Awards

Faith Hill — “Come Home” at 2011 CMA Awards

At the event, Lyngstad said that ABBA would never reunite. “I’m old enough to admit to the fact that I think we did a great job,” Lyngstad commented, as reported by Billboard. Oh, Frida—you wicked dream crusher.

Backstage, the singer joked, “I’m very angry that Madonna got in before us.” Madonna, who sampled the Swedish band’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” in her 2005 single “Hung Up,” was inducted in 2008.

The other acts who entered the Hall Of Fame last night were Genesis, The Hollies, Jimmy Cliff and Iggy Pop And The Stooges.

As has become the norm with these ABBA posts, let’s end with a video clip—this time Frida’s 1982 solo hit “I Know There’s Something Going On” (which features drum work by fellow inductee, Genesis member Phil Collins).

I’m hearing a lot of flack going the way of Jennifer Hudson, Faith Hill, and now Bruce Springsteen’s legendary band for not performing live but miming their performances to pre-recorded music. And while I myself have made it a point never to lip-synch for any reason I have to say that, like the Christian Bale/Director of Photography debacle, uneducated people should mind their own business. Why is this trivia? Cause I’m gonna get vaguely technical:

Stadiums are built in large ovals or in circles and in some cases are built with the express purpose fo amplifying the crowd to dangerous volumes (this is said to “Inspire” sports players). Indeed, American football players have a high instance of hearing loss due to daily exposure to loud noise. Now add into that the shape and location of the speakers for stadiums. The problem is that in the case of music, any performer is going to be contending with the “Slapback,” or natural delay of the sound.

Think of sound like a distance runner. Now imagine that you’re playing music in a small club and the little runner has to sprint from your guitar to your amplifier to the mixing board to the PA speakers to the walls of the club and then run back to you. Sound travels very fast so in a small club this happens almost instantaneously and isn’t noticed by the human ear. But think of how big a stadium is. Now imagine that same runner having to perform that same sprint on the scale of a football field. The runner will be arriving later than they would if they were in the small club i.e. the sound is getting back to you well after you make it. As I’ve said before, this is called delay. Now, in some stadiums delays can be whole seconds which can seriously throw off a musician’s rhythm. Plus pitches can arrive late as well, making it hard to hear what key you’re in or even what note you’re singing. Plus you may be hearing two sounds at ones, the note you’re playing and the note you played. That can be confusing. Of course you could use “in-ear monitors,” like headphones that pipe in your mix to you. But even then, the isolation you’re getting isn’t enough to counteract the dangerous volumes bouncing from the crowds. The plain truth is that stadiums aren’t built for musical performance and are not suited for it…ever.

At any rate, these artists were asked by the Superbowl to “Perform,” for something they’re probably support (what were the Nielsen ratings for the Superbowl? Yeah there’s a good chance they’re football fans) and they wanted to give a good performance. Having heard the horror stories in the past of stadium shows going terribly wrong, they probably opted to be pre-recorded or partially pre-recorded. It was likely a tough decision to make but they decided to pros outweighed the cons and they went for it. And they are not alone. Most half-time shows performed by pop artists are pre-recorded whether or not attention is drawn to it. To blame Bruce Springsteen and his pit perfect band for the acoustically feeble architecture of a stadium is unfair and childish. The internet would be just as mean if they performed it off track, couldn’t hear themselves, and sounded bad. Springsteen is a legend and deserves a little respect. I know the internet was only invented so you can talk about how much you hate things in a disconnected attempt at scene points, but lighten up.

Not that this will necessarily put this particular nontroversy to bed, and I’m sure a just-as-technical counter-counterpoint to this counterpoint will come up soon (whee, arguing on the Internet)—but you have to admit, he does have a point about the whole “someone out there would steer the narrative about Bruce’s performance toward some sort of complaint, because being negative on the Internet always equals pageviews” argument.

Patrick Vaughn Stump [Official site; HT icecreamhdaches]

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: My one-listen verdict to this piece of will/Foster-penned schmaltz was actually me just holding my head in my hands and shaking my head, and that doesn’t really translate well to any longish-form sort of criticism. So I’m going to give it over to Idolator’s own Mike Barthel’s real-time reactions, which he compiled while watching its debut on today’s super-special episode of Oprah:

Aaaaah will.i.am is singing! Then Faith Hill! Then Seal! Rachel: “There’s nothing more schmaltzy than Seal.”

The giant TVs are showing scenes from the heartland! Where is John Mellencamp right now? Answer: eating his hat!

Then Bono in front of a giant American flag VIA SATELLITE! Then Mary J. in front of a bright blue sky!

There are white marble columns in the background! Now this is a Colbert Show episode!

Mary J. appears to be wearing two gyroscopes as earrings!

The chorus goes: “My America / Your America / Our America / Is Beautiful.”

Fields of sunflowers! Factory workers! Michelle and Obama embracing! Bono being pensive! Obama being pensive! Seal and Faith singing directly to each other while Oprah goes nuts!

GIANT AMERICAN FLAG AND THEY ALL HUG! Wow.

I guess not having the visuals, you miss a lot. Although Mike left out the bit at the end that interpolates “America The Beautiful”—but changes the bit about God shedding his grace across the land to a line about America being beautiful… “to me.” Ah, celebrity, you’ll never go away.

Kind of a bummer that they couldn’t figure out a way to get Jay-Z’s “Black President” remix in there—

Rosa Parks sat so that Martin Luther could walk,
Martin Luther walked so that Barack Obama could run,
Barack Obama ran so all the children could fly,
So I’mma spread my wings you can meet me in the sky.

—but I guess we have to wait for the David Foster/Jay-Z mash-up album for that one.

WHERE TO HEAR IT: Oprah’s site is hosting it until tomorrow at 5 p.m. ET. Your mother will probably send you an e-mail about it sometime within the next few hours.

America’s Song [Mike Barthel's Tumblr]

Anyway, we’ve examined the footage over and over again to suss out what really happened. Our CSI-like analysis follows.

“Here I am, America–just another humble lil’ country gal with a cutey-pie face, three loving kids, and an $89 million-earning concert tour.”

“Me? Female artist of the year? Why, I never! I just don’t know what to–”

“What? Carrie who? That little bitch from Muskogee? I was writing songs for Jerry Bruckheimer back when she was still farting out ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’!”

“Screw this. I did not go on Oprah and talk about Katrina victims just to lose to some girl who models for Skecher ads. Tim, get the Gulfstream ready.”

And then she goes back, and to the left. It’s your call, America.

Pretty much everything you need to know about last night’s Country Music Awards can be found in today’s New York Times write-up, but if you’re too lazy for that, here’s a summary: Rehab-relocated Keith Urban had someone read his acceptance speech, which earned big applause (the country fans love their troubled addicts); nobody mentioned the Dixie Chicks; and Faith Hill may or may not have freaked out when she lost to Carrie Underwood. The footage of Hill’s supposed bad-sport reaction is already burning up the YouTube charts (and being splashed across Drudge’s front page), but it’s clearly a joke. Either way, we expect this to become a heavily covered non-issue issue on CNN.com for the rest of the day.

Down by the Ol’ Mainstream: Country Awards Round Up the Usual Sentiments [NY Times]