{"id":156933,"date":"2026-02-09T14:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/156933\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:08:10","slug":"charlie-puth-says-sb-anthem-performance-was-tribute-to-whitney-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/156933\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Puth Says SB Anthem Performance Was Tribute to Whitney Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tPerforming the National Anthem at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/t\/super-bowl\/\" id=\"auto-tag_super-bowl\" data-tag=\"super-bowl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super Bowl<\/a> is a daunting prospect at best. Between nerves about singing the legendarily tricky tune, the intimidation factor of knowing that there are tens of thousands of people in the stadium and more than 100 million others tuning in and trying to live up to Whitney Houston\u2019s unbeatable 1991 version of the Anthem at Super Bowl XXV, it\u2019s a potential fools errand at best.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tExplore\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/artist\/charlie-puth\/\" class=\"c-lazy-image__link lrv-a-unstyle-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-billboard-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/charlie-puth-m2q-344x344.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"\" width=\"\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/artist\/whitney-houston\/\" class=\"c-lazy-image__link lrv-a-unstyle-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-billboard-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/whitney-houston-u3i-344x344.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"\" width=\"\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-tagline  a-font-secondary-fancy-xxxs@desktop-xl a-font-secondary-fancy-s@desktop-xl-max lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase lrv-u-color-black u-padding-t-13 lrv-u-padding-b-2 lrv-u-margin-tb-00 lrv-u-text-align-center lrv-u-border-t-1 lrv-u-border-color-black lrv-u-width-100p\">See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/artist\/charlie-puth\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Charlie Puth<\/a> kept all of that in mind going into Sunday\u2019s (Feb. 8) Super Bowl in Santa Clara, Calif. and, as it turns out, he actually went out of his way to pay homage to Houston instead of running away from that gold standard. \u201cThank you everyone for your kind words. It was an honor to sing The National Anthem. I wrote the arrangement in a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/charlieputh\/status\/2020723519546626406?s=20\">very specific way to honor Whitney Houston<\/a>\u2013 I hope that was heard,\u201d wrote Puth of his musical nod to Houston\u2019s all-time rendition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tPuth\u2019s performance had a lite gospel feel to it and found him <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/pop\/charlie-puth-national-anthem-2026-super-bowl-1236175909\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">accompanied by a choir and orchestra<\/a> as he played along on a Rhodes keyboard. He had kind words for the musicians as well, adding, \u201cThank you to the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, the Sainted Choir, the Color of Noize Orchestra, Steve Hackman, and Kenny G for joining me on stage. And thank you Adam Blackstone for writing such a beautiful choir part. I love music so much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDressed in a brown leather bomber jacket over a white shirt and tie with jeans, Puth <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DUg_rw6kWnf\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\">crooned the Anthem in a crystal-clear falsetto<\/a> over the traditional close-up shots of the stars from the two teams \u2014\u00a0the victorious Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots \u2014\u00a0getting their game faces on, with the performance ending on a soaring high note during a thrilling stealth bomber fly-over. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubpass.co\/billboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2HpFicp.png\" alt=\"Billboard VIP Pass\" style=\"max-width: 100%;height: auto\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t<a class=\"c-logo lrv-a-unstyle-link u-display-inline-flex lrv-u-width-100p  u-max-width-100 u-height-26 u-max-width-130px@mobile-max u-margin-t-040@mobile-max\" href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/\" title=\"Billboard\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-tagline  a-font-accent-l@desktop u-font-size-1205 a-font-accent-xs@mobile-max u-font-size-15@mobile-max u-line-height-22px@mobile-max lrv-u-text-align-center@mobile-max u-letter-spacing-0030@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-t-025 lrv-u-margin-a-00 u-padding-t-0125@mobile-max u-padding-b-0063@mobile-max\">Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"c-link  lrv-a-unstyle-button lrv-u-cursor-pointer lrv-u-display-inline-flex lrv-u-background-color-brand-primary lrv-u-background-color-black:hover lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-color-brand-primary:hover u-padding-lr-0.875 u-padding-tb-10 lrv-u-flex-shrink-0 u-align-items-center a-font-basic-fancy-xs u-margin-t-0.188 u-margin-b-0188 u-margin-b-040@mobile-max\" href=\"https:\/\/cloud.email.billboard.com\/signup\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\tSign Up<\/a><br \/>\n<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Performing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl is a daunting prospect at best. Between nerves about singing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[6299,56,58,57,6300,27564],"class_list":["post-156933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-genre-pop","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-music-news","tag-super-bowl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}