Kurt Darren on anthem hate: 'It's hilarious, I got one word wrong'

Afrikaans singer Kurt Darren has laughed off backlash over his rendition of the national anthem at the Varsity Cup final in Stellenbosch on Monday night, insisting that he got one word wrong in the Afrikaans portion of the song.

"It's very funny actually. I suppose this is how people are. They love a good story," he told Martin Bester during an interview on Jacaranda FM.

Darren said he thought he may have messed up the Afrikaans line "oor ons ewige gebergtes [across our eternal mountains]", but Bester said people had pointed out other errors too.

Darren said that he found it "hilarious" that "people can make such a big thing about a small issue."

The video of him singing the anthem dominated social media after several errors during the Sotho stanza of the anthem.

Bester again mentioned the errors and a confused Darren replied, "Did I get a few things wrong in the anthem?" and went on to explain that he has also made several errors while performing his hit song, Kaptein.

Darren is no stranger to singing the anthem before big sporting events and said that the worst thing a musician can do is to think about the lyrics while performing the song.

The musician did not respond to attempts to get hold of him for comment at the time of publishing this article.