With the new year upon us, most of us are hoping to start off on the right ... note.

Unfortunately this was not the case for pop star Ashlee Simpson, whose performance of “La La,” will forever be known as the “La La” heard around the world. While some may ring in the new year with noise-makers, poppers or even drunken renditions of “Auld Lang Syne,” Simpson’s 2005 began to the tune of booing by the 72,000-plus crowd present at the Fed-Ex Orange Bowl in Miami, Fla. after her halftime performance of “La La” on Jan. 4.

Between Simpson’s performance itself and questioning whether or not it was appropriate to boo a 20-year-old female in front of 72,000 and national television, with a victory of 55-19 over Oklahoma, USC appeared to be the only triumphant party of the event.

Meanwhile, representatives for the Orange Bowl commented that they were very pleased by all of the halftime performances and suggested that the booing was not specifically attributed to Simpson’s half-time performance. Rather they suggested that it was backlash from Simpson’s “Saturday Night Live” debacle—during which Simpson was caught lip-syncing.

Simpson originally blamed this notorious Oct. 23, 2004 performance, or lack thereof, on errors made by her band, but later laid the blame on evil, vocal-cord-attacking acid reflux.

Acid reflux is not a joking matter, folks.

Anyone who saw the performance would have to agree that acid-reflux definitely ruined “La La” – a dazzling song about sex – our eardrums and arguably Simpson’s career.

This infamous “SNL” event coupled with footage from Simpson’s MTV reality show, “The Ashlee Simpson Show,” of Simpson recording her album “Autobiography” where Simpson hoarsely screeches, moans and groans through take after take of track after track caused America to question Simpson’s vocal abilities to begin with.

Ultimately, America welcomed Simpson with open arms; “Autobiography” ended ninth for highest album sales of 2004. Selling over a million copies (2,576,945 copies in fact) earned “Autobiography” platinum status.

Yet the question remains, despite Simpson’s deafening performance was it right for the Orange Bowl attendees to boo this 20-year old wanna-be superstar who, truly is caught in the shadow of her highly successful, highly talented older sister, Jessica Simpson?

Ideally, America should take the silent, yet polite approach to letting Ashlee Simpson know that America has had enough. Not watching the second season of “The Ashlee Simpson Show” starting in late January, refraining from purchasing any more copies of her album “Autobiography” and not attending any performances of the tour that is scheduled to begin in February would have effectively conveyed the message.

But handling Simpson in a strong but silent manner would deny Americans from their favorite right and true love—free speech.

Why politely say, “No thank you, I’ve had enough,” when you can cut it down to a one-syllabled “boo”? It’s short, not sweet and is entirely to the point.

As they say, no publicity is bad publicity and in the end, the Orange Bowl fiasco Simpson will surely find the silver lining. As seen in the “SNL” situation, after the initial jeers and sneers of the mass media and the general population of America, Simpson will bounce back. Most likely preying off the inherently mean nature of the act of booing, Simpson will be seen as a victim. After all, the first song she sang during halftime, “Pieces of Me” was not that auditorally offensive and one for two isn’t that bad—at least she sang this time, right?

Besides, who knows what the crowd of 72,000 was truly booing after all? Perhaps their collective booing was intended to be directed at the poor sound quality that riddled the halftime performance. Despite the complaints that both Kelly Clarkson and Trace Adkins’ performances were hard to hear, these performers received extremely positive reviews.

Perhaps the crowd was predominately comprised of Oklahoma fans and was booing the striking lead USC held at halftime.

Or maybe the booing incurred due to the nature of the song itself: “You make me wanna la la in the kitchen on the floor / I’ll be a French maid when I meet you at the door / I’m like an alley cat drink the milk up, I want more / You make me wanna / You make me wanna scream.”

Reading over the lyrics, you really can’t blame the audience for wanting to scream as well.

While I would never wish that anyone be humiliated, or booed specifically, in front of the entire nation, I must concede that Simpson seems to set herself up for humiliation time and time again.

“You can throw me like a line-man / I like it better when it hurts.”

Simpson is hurting indeed.