Today, Thursday, La Borinqueña artist José Feliciano was responsible for singing La Borinqueña and The Star Spangled Banner at the Roberto Clemente Day ceremony at Citi Fields in New York, and for reasons unknown, he shone without being in control of the stage he has been accustomed to have throughout his career.
After singing La Borinqueña, he sat in a chair on home plate at Citi Field and, accompanied by his son Johnny, Feliciano began singing En Mi Viejo San Juan instead of singing the United States anthem.
While it was all being televised, his son Johnny interrupted him in the middle of the first verse to try and lead him to the original plan. Seconds later, Feliciano returned to the microphone and started singing again, but accidentally restarted La Borinqueña and had to be stopped again.
His surprise slip happened in front of dozens of Puerto Ricans in the stadium’s stands. Among them all, a woman could be heard shouting “Viva Puerto Rico Libre” while Feliciano collected himself. No one booed the legendary 77-year-old artist recognized in the baseball world for a historic episode in 1968 when he presented an emotional version of The Star Spangled Banner during a World Series game that sparked anger and rebuke at the time, because he was the first artist who dared to give his own style to the intonation of the hymn, which is very common today.
Feliciano had already recovered from everything and finally began to sing the United States anthem as best he could and finished it as best he could.
He was applauded after the effort.