“What happened wasn’t my fault” – Singer Ellynora refuses to take blame after criticism over England national anthem before Italy game

Singer Ellynora endured fans' wrath for her botched performance while singing England's national anthem ahead of the UEFA Euro 2024 qualification game against Italy.

The American, though, refused to take the blame for what happened and claimed that there was a problem with the mouthpiece. She fumbled her words and also repeated the first line twice.

Speaking about the incident, the singer said (via Daily Mail):

"I’m just so angry with what happened because I wanted it to be perfect but what happened wasn’t my fault. I’m more of a pop artist but at the ground there was a sound issue. I had rehearsed the anthem twice the day before the match and then on the night three times but when it came to the actual performance, I had a problem with my earpiece."

She added:

"I had the music in my ear and then it stopped and started again, and I was hearing it twice, so it meant I was out of sync, and it was hard for me to catch up. I really tried my best to solve the problem but there was nothing I could do and I’m so angry about it. I was trying to adjust my singing to catch up with the anthem in the stadium, but it was too late."

England won the game at the Diego Maradona Stadium by a scoreline of 2-1. Declan Rice opened the scoring for the Three Lions before Harry Kane made it 2-0 from the penalty spot on the stroke of half-time.

Mateo Retegui managed to reduce the deficit by one in the second half of the match. Luke Shaw was sent off after picking up two yellow cards in quick succession.

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Ellynora revealed she wasn't paid to perform ahead of England vs Italy

Ellynora revealed that she wasn't paid to perform ahead of the England vs. Italy tie. She also volunteered to bear the cost of flying from the United States to Naples.

The 28-year-old claimed that it cost her around €3,000 to perform ahead of the clash in Naples. She said:

"The whole thing was very last minute, I was in Miami on Saturday for music week when I got a call asking if I could sing the national anthem. I said I could because it was such an honour and so caught a plane back to Italy and then drove from Rome to Naples – I funded the whole thing myself and didn’t get a penny for it."

Ellynora added:

"It cost me more than 3,000 Euros and now this has happened – I’m going to get my manager to write to the organisers to explain how disappointed and angry I was with what happened."

At the moment, Ellynora boasts around 50K followers on her official Instagram account.