FILE PICTURE: Kurt Darren entertains DA supporters at the opening ceremony of the Democratic Alliance's Federal Congress held at the Thswane Events Center, 7 April 2018, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles
Pop star Kurt Darren spoke to Eusebius McKaiser on his 702 radio show on Tuesday morning following his mistake when singing the national anthem at a varsity rugby match between Tuks and Maties, which was caught on camera and has since gone viral.
Darren let his frustrations get the better of him, ultimately hanging up on McKaiser on air, although he did tell him to have a “lekker day” first.
Darren was trending at number 1 on Twitter at the time of publication after he “butchered” the South African national anthem, according to numerous users on the platform.
The Kaptein hitmaker got the Sesotho second verse of the anthem wrong, missing a line and substituting it with one from the earlier Zulu section of the first verse.
He told McKaiser that he felt the backlash he received was over-the-top. “Why on earth am I trending?” he asked.
“You know what? I’m not going to disrespect our anthem, I love singing it, it’s always an honour to sing our anthem, but I woke up this morning to a massive storm and it’s so funny to me, I mean is it really news?
“Yes I messed up one line in the anthem, but I mean you’re singing in front of 20,000 students at a varsity cup final it’s a completely different animal to singing it at a test or a super 15 or whatever, it’s just crazy.”
WATCH: Kurt Darren ‘completely butchers’ the national anthem
Darren says he has also messed up the lyrics of his own biggest hit, Kaptein, before.
“I’ve done it to Kaptein and I’ve [sung] the song 10,000 times.
“I know it’s the anthem, I know I was there to sing it and do it properly, but I messed up a line,” he said, adding “It’s so weird that it erupted this way”.
Things then went south after McKaiser asked why he’d messed up a line of an anthem he’d had “25 years to learn”.
Darren reacted disappointingly, asking: “Oh, you carrying on with it now?”
McKaiser indeed did carry on with it, repeating the question, at which point Darren hung up on him, albeit in a very polite way.
“Ag, anyway, alright have a lekker day,” he said, before putting the phone down.
The interview can be listened to below.
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