Shannon Noll
Singer Shannon Noll holds his MTV Award for Best Male Artist, for the song 'lonely,' at the MTV Australia Video Music Awards in Sydney April 29, 2007. REUTERS/Robert James Wallace

Shannon Noll has labelled people who criticised his singing of the Australian national anthem as “haters.”

The former “Australian Idol” runner-up was asked to perform “Advance Australia Fair” at the Victoria’s Moonee Valley racecourse on Saturday to open the annual Cox Plate races. But while there are those who commended him for his singing, there were also those who thought he butchered the song.

Apparently, he delivered “the most bogan version” of the national anthem, unable to pronounce the words in the song right. Some noted that he sang “Advernce Austraya Fair” instead.

Viewers quickly turned to social media to express their displeasure of hearing Noll’s version of the national tune, saying he was embarrassing to listen to.

Just caught up on news. Can we finally banish @NOLLSIE from the country now? #disgraceful #coxplate #shannonnoll

— Siobhan (@bon_hendo) October 26, 2014

@mmmhotbreakfast it sounded like #ShannonNoll was trying to strangle #Hughesy's cat — Jonny Liebenberg (@JonnyLiebenberg) October 26, 2014

#ShannonNoll singing the national anthem sounds like a national disaster. That was putrid!

— Chris (@Borat_Jnr) October 25, 2014

Not all comments about Noll’s performance were negative. Some thought he actually did a fine job.

@NOLLSIE Your music is not to my taste but you sung the anthem great. Better than 99% of us and better than 100% of the haters.#shannonnoll. — Aaron (@schmwarf) October 26, 2014

Heard about this #shannonnoll #nationalanthem thing - I watched it - I don't even like him & I didn't think it was THAT bad.

— Jade Watson-Nicholls (@jadelz85) October 26, 2014

Noll, 39, kept his responses to the hurtful comments to a minimum, replying only to one of his detractors on Twitter.

@lachie66 ha ha, get stuffed mate! #hater — Shannon Noll (@NOLLSIE) October 25, 2014

He also retweeted a couple of positive comments about his performance.

Noll was the runner-up on the first ever “Australian Idol” in 2003, the series where Guy Sebastian took the title. After taking two years hiatus, he has recently released “We Only Live Once,” the lead single for his next album.