Jon Batiste kickstarted Super Bowl LIX between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, opening with the National Anthem at Caesars Super Dome in New Orleans. Batiste’s performance brought an innovative spin on the time-honored classic, incorporating a drum sample towards the song’s close, a Super Bowl first.
Batiste, a five-time Grammy winner, was a particularly fitting choice to open this year’s game having grown up in New Orleans and championing the city’s storied musical history. Earlier this week, Batiste told Entertainment Tonight that his “The Star-Spangled Banner” performance would honor his late grandfather.
“I’m thinking a lot about my personal story and the story of this country and the story of how we can honor the best of us,” Batiste told the outlet. “My grandfather was one of my great mentors, he passed away, he was the best of this country. He served his country, he was the first wave of integrating the Navy, he was the first wave of many of our greatest achievements. Having that legacy in my family, the veterans in my family — people who understand what it means to have freedoms and to almost lose them — sing it for them.”
The inaugural Musicians on Musicians Live participant discussed the responsibility he felt to giving a resonant national anthem performance during a press conference on Thursday. “Music can communicate deep, profound truths,” he said. “I believe that our country, our songs, our iconography — the complexity of all of it — has a real important place as we negotiate and continue to redefine.”
Batiste’s “The Star-Spangled Banner” was one of several musical moments for this year’s Super Bowl. Ledisi performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” while Trombone Shorty and Lauren Daigle performed “America the Beautiful.”
Kendrick Lamar will play the halftime show along with SZA. During a press conference earlier this week, Lamar was scant on details but said to expect “storytelling” for his performance.
“I’ve always been very open about storytelling through all my catalog and my history of music, and I’ve always had a passion about bringing that on whatever stage I’m on,” Lamar said. “I like to always carry on that sense of mak[ing] people listen, but also [to] see and think a little.”
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