Alicia Keys’ Pitchy Vocal Flub During Super Bowl Halftime Mysteriously Removed From NFL’s Official YouTube Video

By Alex Vena
Published Feb. 13, 2024, 5:24 p.m. ET

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Fans were quick to harp on the not-so-smooth start of Alicia Keys‘ Super Bowl Halftime Show appearance online. However, they were seemingly just as quick to call attention to a new, revised version of her performance posted the following day.

According to Us Weekly, the NFL’s official YouTube page shared the video of the entire 2024 Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show performance — headlined by Usher, and fit with cameos from Keys, H.E.R., Lil Jon, Ludacris, will.i.am, and Jermaine Dupri, per Entertainment Tonight — on Monday (Feb. 12), but the video lacks one aspect of Keys’ performance captured during CBS’ live broadcast on Sunday night (Feb. 11): her voice cracking. (Cue the Randy Jackson!)

Keys took the stage to sing an excerpt from her 2000s hit “If I Ain’t Got You” at a red piano, while donning a matching red outfit with a gloriously grand red cape flowing behind her. She experienced a hoarse start and missed her first note, but recovered immediately after. The new video appears to seamlessly gloss over the error, with a new perfected iteration.

Keen observers on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) highlighted the discrepancy between the original performance and the NFL’s YouTube video, with one describing it as “a 2024 Mandela Effect.” Curious listeners can find clips of the unedited version online if they so please — an edit has even been made of the missed note on repeat for nine seconds.

Decider reached out to representatives for Keys and Apple, but did not hear back by time of publication.

Usher and Keys also collabed on stage with their 2004 hit “My Boo.” Keys’ husband, Swizz Beats, took to Instagram on Monday in support of his wife’s performance and to attempt to drown out the “negative vibes” from critics looking too far into their sizzling duet, per People.

“Y’all talking about the wrong damn thing !!” he wrote, ultimately calling the performance “nothing but amazing with 2 amazing Giants.”