Andra Day officially added to a historic streak of annual pre-Super Bowl performances by singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at the 2024 Super Bowl, this year held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Taking the field minutes before this year's opener between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, the Grammy winner was joined by six backup singers whose voices — as the song's title suggests — augmented her own. “Lift up every voice and sing,” he lived, adding deftly nimble runs to various notes, “Till earth and heaven ring/ They ring with the harmonies of freedom.”
“Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written by civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson in 1900. The anthem is often referred to as the “Black National Anthem” as “the lyrics eloquently captured the solemn but hopeful plea for freedom for Black Americans. and was widely used as a rallying cry during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, according to NAACP.
Day is just the second black artist in history to perform the ballad on a Super Bowl field before kickoff, following Sheryl Lee Ralph's stunning performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at State Farm Stadium in 2023. Two years before, Alicia Keys launched the tradition by singing the anthem in a pre-recorded video that aired during the Super Bowl broadcast in 2021, the year after Mary Mary performed the honors outside SoFi Stadium.
The “Rise Up” singer's pregame appearance preceded Post Malone's performance of “America the Beautiful” and Reba McEntire's national anthem. Usher will headline the 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/andra-day-sings-lift-every-voice-and-sing-super-bowl-2024-1235605013/