If you want to make a song everyone has heard thousands of times and make it as memorable and impactful as the first time you heard it, just take a cue from the 2025 U.S. presidential inauguration and hire an operatic tenor like Christopher Macchio to do it. The New York native and prolific tenor performer sang his rousing rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” at the inaugural ceremony of President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025.
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According to Macchio, a Trump staffer told the operatic tenor he was the incoming president’s “first and only choice” for the performance. After watching Macchio’s rendition of the national anthem, it’s easy to see why.
Tenor Christopher Macchio Performs Rousing National Anthem
Although President Donald Trump and operatic tenor Christopher Macchio both hail from New York City, their paths didn’t cross until around 2016 when Trump hired the New York Tenors member to fill in for a New Year’s Eve performance. Trump has since hired Macchio to perform at several notable events, including a White House memorial service for Trump’s brother, Robert Trump, his 2024 Madison Square Garden rally, and the Republican National Convention the following year. Macchio told AP News that after performing at a different 2025 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump said to Macchio, “I’ll be seeing you at the inauguration.” Months later, Trump upheld his promise.
Ahead of his performance at the 2025 presidential inauguration ceremony, Macchio told AP News, “I’m a traditionalist. I will be delivering essentially a straightforward rendition. And the only license that I take is when it comes to the high notes. I do tend to indulge a little bit and stretch those high notes.”
And indeed, Macchio did just that, delivering “The Star Spangled Banner” with his rich, full tenor. He opted for a classical approach to the song, reinforcing its age as an 18th-century composition. Besides a few fermatas on the higher notes, Macchio played it straight with a few minor exceptions of a gravelly tone likely caused by his nerves affecting his bottom-most register. Overall, it was a rousing and traditionalist version of a song sung thousands upon thousands of times in just as many ways.
The Online Community Responds
“I couldn’t help but tear up,” one X, formerly known as Twitter, user wrote. “Never felt more proud to be an American than I do right now.” “My God! This is how it should be done,” wrote another. “Beautiful,” one added. “I can’t believe he needed a microphone.” (As a classically trained vocalist, this writer can guess with reasonable certainty that the mic needn’t be turned up too hot with a voice like Macchio coming through it). Another user added, “It’s surely one of the greatest performances ever. I have never felt so patriotic in my life.”
In the end, Macchio seemed to achieve his goal of delivering a version of the national anthem so beautiful that it superseded political divides. “For those folks who might not have voted for President Trump, I hope that they’ll give me that kind of opportunity to just listen and just really connect with the music,” Macchio told AP News. “I’ll be doing the national anthem, and it is meant to do honor to our great country.”
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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