With Super Bowl LIX just two days away, Kendrick Lamar isn’t the only performer viewers are excited to see. Before the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles go head to head for the title, Grammy-winning artist Jon Batiste has the field. Batiste will kick things off with the national anthem. The “Freedom” singer is no stranger to the spotlight,. In fact, he performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” ahead of the 2017 NBA All-Star Game.
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Coming home to sing the anthem at the Super Bowl next week🙏🏾God bless🙏🏾🇺🇸 #SBLIX @RocNation @NFL @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/R12QrxePiR
— jon batiste (@JonBatiste) February 3, 2025
Jon Batiste Delivers Soulful National Anthem Performance
Playing drums in his family’s band by age 8, Jon Batiste earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the prestigious Juilliard School. In 2021, the 38-year-old soul singer soared with 2021’s We Are, taking home the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
Ahead of the 2017 NBA All-Star Game, Batiste sat center court behind his piano. He then treated viewers to a silky smooth rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Ironically, that year’s All-Star Game also took place in New Orleans, Louisiana. Batiste’s roots run deep in the Big Easy. Born in nearby Metairie, he grew up in Kenner, Louisiana. The “Cry” singer is the latest in a long line of New Orleans musicians, including his father, Michael, who co-founded the Batiste Brothers Band. Michael and his seven brothers played R&B, soul, funk and New Orleans music.
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“To watch Jon perform (or even to hear him speak) is to watch a physical embodiment of the soul of New Orleans,” Visit New Orleans wrote in a February 2024 blog post.
He’s Not Just Doing It For Himself
During a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Jon Batiste said he sees his Super Bowl performance as an opportunity to “honor the best of us.
For the Louisiana native, that means his own grandfather, David Gauthier. Gauthier, who died last year at the age of 90, was among the first wave of Black Americans to serve in the Navy. He also served as president of the Louisiana Postal Workers Union, which participated in the 1968 labor strike calling for higher wages and safer working conditions.
“He left a legacy,” Batiste said. “And not in the egotistical sense, but in the sense of… things that, even when he’s gone, is just making people’s lives better.
“So that’s what I want all my performances to do,” he continued. “That’s what I want my music to do—to just really make everybody’s lives better.”
Featured image by Daniel DeSlover/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
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