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Chris Stapleton’s national anthem performance brought the Super Bowl audience to tears

Chris Stapleton’s national anthem performance brought the Super Bowl audience to tears
Posted at 8:10 AM, Feb 13, 2023
and last updated 2023-02-13 14:02:58-05

Country artist Chris Stapleton gave a moving rendition of the national anthem to open Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12 that brought players, coaches and fans to tears.

Wearing all black, Stapleton performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” to kick off the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. Just over a minute into his performance, the cameras showed Nick Sirianni, head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, with tears in his eyes. Some players, including Jason Kelce, were also shown getting emotional during the song.

Here’s a post from NBC Sports capturing these moments for posterity:

Fans at home were brought to tears as well. Many took to Twitter to share how much they loved the performance. Here’s a post from @SymbioticEgo, calling the song “heartfelt” and “beautiful.”

One fan posted that they don’t even live in the United States and Stapleton’s version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” still made them cry.

Troy Kotsur, Oscar-winning star of the film “Coda,” stood alongside Stapleton, performing the song in American Sign Language. You can watch the full performance below from Fox, which broadcast the Super Bowl this year:

Stapleton is a Grammy winner who has also taken home a Country Music Association Award for Male Vocalist of the Year and more than a dozen other CMA awards, plus 10 Academy of Country Music Awards. He was also named ACM’s artist songwriter of the decade.

Along with performing his own music, Stapleton has also written and co-written many hit songs, including No. 1 country songs such as George Strait’s “Love’s Gonna Make It Alright” and “Drink a Beer” by Luke Bryan. He has co-written and performed with artists outside of the country music world as well, including Ed Sheeran, Adele, Kelly Clarkson and Taylor Swift.

AP | Jordan Strauss

Other performances during the 2023 Super Bowl included Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, who sang “America the Beautiful” and “Abbott Elementary” actor Sheryl Lee Ralph, who sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is known as the the Black national anthem.

Ralph wrote on Twitter that Feb. 12 was also the anniversary of the song, which was first performed in public 123 years ago, on Feb. 12, 1900.

Rihanna headlined the halftime show, in which she also revealed that she is expecting her second child.

What were your favorite moments from Super Bowl LVII?

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