Musically, Brandi Carlile is hard to pin down. The 11-time Grammy Award winner blends folk, rock, Americana, and country on songs like “The Joke” and “Party of One.” Her social and political views are less nebulous, however. Carlile has long advocated for causes like racial justice and LGBTQ+ rights. Now, the 44-year-old Washington native is tasked with singing “America the Beautiful” before her beloved Seattle Seahawks take the field against the New England Patriots to vie for the Super Bowl LX title. Ahead of Sunday’s (Feb. 8) performance, Carlile sat down with Variety to discuss what this opportunity means for her.
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Brandi Carlile Will Take The Field Ahead of Super Bowl LX
Performing “America the Beautiful” live is not a new experience for Brandi Carlile. The two-time Emmy winner sang the patriotic tune ahead of a Seattle Seahawks game in 2015. However, this time feels different, and she doesn’t take it lightly.
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“I have my own moral code, my own moral imperative, that I have to answer to at the end of the day, as a wife and mother, and I believe in my ability and responsibility to do this, and that’s why I’m here,” she told Variety.
“And the throughline to being queer and being a representative of a marginalized community and being put on the largest stage in America to acknowledge the fraught and tender hope that this country is based on, it’s something you don’t say no to. You do it.
In 1893, poet and activist Katharine Lee Bates wrote the poem that would become “America the Beautiful” after a train ride to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado. More than a century later, “it almost feels almost like she was feeling the way about the country when she wrote it that I’m feeling today singing it,” Carlile said. “Just this fragile hope, love and belief in where it could be, and acknowledging where it’s been, and acknowledging that we’re not there yet. And that’s what I think is so American about that song — that total celebration is not in order; that our prayers are still in order. But that the only way to move forward is with belief.”
Super Bowl LX kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Eastern from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Featured image by Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images
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