Martha Reeves, the 85-year-old Motown singer, has blamed her backing singers for a widely mocked rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" that she performed at the inaugural Women's Professional Baseball League game in Springfield, Illinois, earlier this month. She initially attributed the poor performance to wet, windy field conditions and a lack of stage monitors, but TMZ later obtained rehearsal footage showing her telling one backing singer she was out of tune and declaring on the stadium microphone that she did not need them.

In a subsequent interview with Fox 2 Detroit, Reeves denied having rehearsed with the singers at all, claiming she did not see them "until I actually started singing", and insisted she had no need to redo the performance, saying "those girls were singing". When pressed on whether the backing singers were off-key, she said "they were trying to make some money" and reiterated she had not had a chance to rehearse with them. She went on to attempt the anthem again live on air, and maintained she was proud of her original performance, noting "I didn't take the mic and hit that girl."