Maya Rudolph was giving the commencement speech at Tulane, but Pamela Bell also showed up. Rudolph brought her Saturday Night Live character to life behind the podium in New Orleans Saturday, doing a wild take on the national anthem.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2009 Rudolph explained that the Pamela Bell character was inspired by American Idol: “I was making fun of this new style of singing that people seem to do, where not only do they lay it on thick, they have, like, 20 different voices in the same song, which I find so incredibly strange.”
Some of Rudolph’s excellent Beyoncé impression also snuck into the rendition, as Rudolph veered from the national anthem to snippets of “Single Ladies” and “Drunk in Love.”
[h/t Vulture]
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