Brandi Carlile is starting Super Bowl LX off on a high note. Ahead of the New England Patriots’ game against the Seattle Seahawks, Carlile made her way onto the field at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, to perform “America the Beautiful.”
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Carlile, a noted Seahawks fan, put her incredible voice on display as she performed the tune. The crowd appeared awed by Carlile’s stunning showing, cheering throughout her time in the spotlight.
Ahead of the big moment, Carlile teased her performance to Variety. She told the outlet that she put the song “in a key that’s right at the ceiling there for me.” That assured, Carlile said, that she’d “come out swinging” for her “melodically centered version” of the song.
Carlile also discussed the lyrics of the song, which were penned by Katharine Lee Bates.
“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 of Bates. “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.”
“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,” she continued. “But that the only way to move forward is with belief.”
Brandi Carlile Discusses Her “America the Beautiful” Performance
Carlile also spoke about the feelings that come with performing a patriotic song amid a time of division in America.
“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,” Carlile said. “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.”
That strife has seeped into the Super Bowl too. Some people have expressed discontent over Bad Bunny’s halftime performance, and even set up an alternate halftime show in response.
According to Carlile, this year’s Super Bowl performers, who also include Coco Jones and Charlie Puth, “shouldn’t be” controversial. That’s the case, she said, because “it looks exactly like America!”
“It looks exactly like the United States,” she said. “It looks like the players on the field, and it looks like the people that are watching the sport.”
“That’s how it should look, with a lot of demographics represented, and a lot of enthusiastic people excited to celebrate a huge game on a unifying day,” Carlile added. “And I think that the folks that put together the entertainment portion of the Super Bowl this year just did a bang-up job. It’s really good. Bad Bunny’s incredible—an incredible spirit and performer. It’s gonna be a fabulous halftime show.”
Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images
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