Motown Icon Martha Reeves' National Anthem At Women's Pro Baseball League Debut Is Going Viral For All The Wrong Reasons

Every artist has a bad performance now and then—even the living legends.

When most people think of a women's baseball league, they think of the film A League Of Their Own. But the new WPBL, or Women's Professional Baseball League, has made that Hollywood legend a new reality.

The League made it's big debut on Saturday to a sold-out crowd of spectators in Illinois, and on hand to handle "The Star-Spangled Banner" was none other than Motown legend Martha Reeves.

And of course, her rendition of the national anthem instantly went viral... but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.

Reeves, the frontwoman for Motown group Martha and the Vandellas, who made famous songs like "Dancing in the Street," "Heat Wave," and "Nowhere to Run," was joined by two other singers to handle the anthem.

And there's just no way around it: the performance was downright bizarre. It often seemed like Reeves and her two accompanists were doing completely different performances simultaneously. Maybe even in completely different locations.

It turns out that's kind of exactly what happened. Performing in large arenas and stadiums is notoriously difficult business for singers, as the reverb and crowd noise can make it incredibly difficult to hear much of anything, let alone their own singing voice.

This is why singers wear in-ear monitors for big arena shows that usually have a mix of the beat, a guiding melody track and a mic feed of their own vocals to keep them on beat and on key.

At the very least, most performances have speakers aimed at the singers so they can hear themselves.

But in a statement to TMZ, Reeves explained that the conditions at the ballpark that day meant there were no monitors at all and... well, we've all seen how it turned out.

She wrote:

“Having just celebrated my 85th birthday, I’ve learned a great deal over more than 60 years of performing live..."

"...The field conditions were wet and windy, and without stage monitors I wasn’t able to hear myself as I normally would."

"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.”

Of course, that has done little to quell the viral discourse of the performance, which many have called an all-timer, up there with Fergie in the pantheon of bizarre anthem renditions.

Regardless, Reeves is nothing short of an icon, and conducted herself as such even amidst all the mockery.

In her statement, she was sure to focus on the real milestone: the launch of the WPBL and what she called a "historic moment for women in sports."

"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."

A class act, as always.