{"id":457804,"date":"2026-02-09T06:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T06:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/457804\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T06:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T06:55:11","slug":"brandi-carlile-soars-with-america-the-beautiful-at-super-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/457804\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandi Carlile Soars With ‘America the Beautiful’ at Super Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe majesty is not just in the purple mountains: It\u2019s in the voice of Brandi Carlile<\/a>, who has one of the most celebrated vocal ranges in modern American music, and was an apt pick by the NFL to sing \u201cAmerica the Beautiful\u201d before the Super Bowl<\/a> LX kickoff Sunday.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an interview with Variety<\/a> published Saturday, Carlile admitted, \u201cI\u2019m a little worried about it. I put it in a key that\u2019s right at the ceiling there for me, and so I\u2019m gonna come out swinging.\u201d Indeed, she did place the song in one of her upper registers, adding some vibrato for good measure.<\/p>\n

\n\tPlaying acoustic guitar, she was accompanied by SistaStrings<\/a>, the string-playing sister duo that often accompanies her on record and in concert, and who provided the interlude while cameras cut away to Seattle and New England cityscapes. \u201cSo it\u2019s gonna be sort of a melodically centered version, instead of a rhythmically centered version,\u201d she noted before the performance.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBrandi Carlile (L) performs \u201cAmerica the Beautiful\u201d during Super Bowl LX between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots at Levi\u2019s Stadium on February 8, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tCarlile told Variety about the intent of the song, and the lyrics written by social activist Katharine Lee Bates more than 125 years ago. \u201cI don\u2019t want to put words in her mouth; she was beyond brilliant. But it feels almost like she was feeling the way about the country when she wrote it that I\u2019m feeling today singing it. Just this fragile hope, love and belief in where it could be, and acknowledging where it\u2019s been, and acknowledging that we\u2019re not there yet. And that\u2019s what I think is so American about that song \u2014 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\u2026 And I think if we\u2019re gonna save this country as a people, we have to be reminded on some level that deep down we love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking to the part of her audience that might not feel like this is a time to celebrate America with a patriotic anthem, Carlile said, \u201cYou know, this is an interesting song. And it\u2019s an interesting decision that I\u2019m making. I definitely don\u2019t want to be seen as neoliberal or as someone who\u2019s glossing over the problems that we have in this country. I want to be seen as one of the people that\u2019s helping.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf the overall Super Bowl music lineup, which also includes Bad Bunny, Charlie Puth and Coco Jones, Carlile acknowledged there has been controversy, but said there \u201cshouldn\u2019t be. It looks exactly like America! It looks exactly like the United States. It looks like the players on the field, and it looks like the people that are watching the sport. And that\u2019s 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. 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\u2019s really good. Bad Bunny\u2019s incredible \u2014an incredible spirit and performer. It\u2019s gonna be a fabulous halftime show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs to whether she would wear any gear celebrating her hometown team, Carlile said, \u201cYou\u2019re not allowed to. But I\u2019ll have a Seahawks jersey on in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The majesty is not just in the purple mountains: It\u2019s in the voice of Brandi Carlile, who has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[10480,88,216,213921,1803],"class_list":{"0":"post-457804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-brandi-carlile","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-sistastrings","12":"tag-super-bowl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}