As a singer and not the biggest fan of football, I watch the Superbowl for two reasons: 1) Who is singing the national anthem, and 2) who is performing at the half time show. When it was announced that Lady Gaga would sing this year's national anthem, I became ecstatic. I've known for years that she is talented beyond the meat dresses, large theatrics and party hits. She is a talented singer to her core as well as someone who advocates against domestic/sexual violence. Many of the famous singers that use this as a time to show off their vocal control and abilities. A good example of this comes from Super Bowl XLV of 2011. Christina Aguilera performed it that year and provided so many runs that we thought we were on a roller coaster. If you don't take my word for it, see the link below.
She was too distracted trying to wow us with her signature belting that she forgot some of the words to the song itself. Not sure how you could forget the words, but she did it. The point of this article was not to point out what was done wrong with our national anthem but what was done right.
Now, let's take a look at the performance Miss Gaga gave us.
She starts out the song before she even begins to sing. She stands there, proudly, with her hand over her heart. Now, I know that this is something that you are supposed to do when the national anthem is played, but we have never seen the performer do this on live television before. I looked back at a few different performances and not a single one had the performer doing this. She keeps it there until after the first few notes. It is a small gesture, but a huge one. There are some of the players that we see in the sidelines that don't do this. There are people in the stands that don't do this, but she does. She honors our country.
She starts it off with only a piano and the flag being held up on the field. She keeps her hand on her heart for a majority of the song. She even returned her hand to her heart after the song was done. What I found the most beautiful about her rendition was the fact that she didn't try to show off. She sang the song mostly how it is written. She stuck to what it was at its core, a song that honors who we are as a country.
Another aspect of her rendition was that there was a woman also performing it in American Sign Language before her. The woman, like Gaga, was also giving a heartfelt performance. Towards the end, she pointed to our flag. She reminded us that the purpose of her singing this was not to show off her voice or give a performance, but to honor the land that we love before what is arguably the biggest televised sports event of the year.
