Marc Anthony Reminds People “Hey, I’m American Too!”

Singer-songwriter Marc Anthony is finding himself in a bit of hiccup these days on the subject of his nationality. The 44 year old New York native sang “God Bless America” this past Tuesday at the MLB All-Star game and had some of the game’s spectators guessing whether he was an American or not. The singer caught a few of the comments on Twitter when people tweeted that a Latino wasn’t the best choice when it came to singing that particular song, to put it nicely. Many of the tweets are so derogatory that the account users that tweeted out originally got rid of their accounts due to public shaming, most notably on Tumblr. Others have chosen to remain on Twitter and defend their racists tweets.

In a recent interview on the Kelly and Michael Show, Marc Anthony touched on the topic. He said “Something happened, I wanted to clarify. You know, me singing the national anthem, there was some statements made that people were upset that they would have somebody from another country sing the national anthem.” He proceeded to say, “But to set the record straight, I was born and raised in New York. You can’t get more New York than me.”

A similar incident happened last month at the NBA finals. An 11 year-old boy named Sebastien De La Cruz from San Antonio, Texas sang the national anthem in a mariachi suit. The backlash from Twitter and various other social media platforms was enormous from racist remarks to doubting his nationality as well. The boy comes from a family of Mexican-born parents. Marc Anthony was confused for being Mexican as well but for the record, his parents are Puerto Rican born and Marc born and raised in New York.

One thing that some NBA and MLB fans have in common is the lack of patience for Hispanic singers at their games. ABC has reported that Marc Anthony says that he is “as American as apple pie” just in case there were any doubts about his nationality or another invitation to sing at another major sporting event.