A national anthem performance by Motown legend Martha Reeves at the first-ever game of the Women’s Professional Baseball League went viral over the weekend for all the wrong reasons.
Reeves and her two backup singers’ vocals were all over the place during their rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner” that left those in attendance making awkward faces and many more online shocked.
However, it appears the performers should have known potential danger was ahead after their shaky rehearsals in the stadium. TMZ obtained video of the singers practicing their performance ahead of the full crowd entering.
In the video, which can be seen below, Reeves questions whether the backup singers should participate.
“I don’t think I need them,” Reeves said. “I don’t need them.”
Despite the rocky rehearsals, the performance went off as planned. That was not cited as a reason it sounded off by Reeves, though.
😅 EXCLUSIVE: Martha Reeves critiques backup singers before viral WPBL anthem performance. pic.twitter.com/z7jCUYpbsF
— TMZ (@TMZ) August 4, 2026
“Having just celebrated my 85th birthday, I’ve learned a great deal over more than 60 years of performing live,” Reeves said after the response to the national anthem effort.
“It was an incredible honor to be invited to perform at the inaugural Women’s Professional Baseball League event and to help celebrate such a historic moment for women in sports. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
“The field conditions were wet and windy, and without stage monitors I wasn’t able to hear myself as I normally would,” Reeves explained. “While it wasn’t the performance I had hoped for, I’m grateful to have been there in support of these remarkable athletes and this groundbreaking league.”
Reeves, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, gained notoriety in the ’60s as the lead singer for group “Martha Reeves & the Vandellas.”
The singer was in attendance for the inaugural game of the Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL), which has four teams (New York Heights, San Francisco Firebells, Los Angeles Queens and Boston Hunters). It was the first women’s professional game to take place in the United States in 70 years.
Philadelphia native Mo’ne Davis, whose celebrity grew in 2014 when she was one of two girls to compete in the Little League World Series, plays for the Los Angeles Queens. The first 1,000 fans in attendance received Davis bobbleheads.
Despite the shaky national anthem performance, it was overall a successful debut for the WPBL; the Queens defeated New York 10-8.
Some sports coaches often say, “If you practice bad, you play bad.”
In this case, the same apparently applies to singing rehearsals.
