pink-super-bowl-lii-anthem

Super Bowl LII is still a few more weeks away, but we now know who will be performing the national anthem prior to the game. This year, that honor will go to Pink, marking her first time performing the national anthem at the Super Bowl.

The three-time Grammy Award winner will have quite the audience for her first national anthem performance on this kind of stage, although she is certainly not one to shy away from the big stage over the course of her career. She may have been holding on to this particular news for a couple of days, as she suggested she had “some other stuff that’s a secret” in a tweet over the weekend.

https://twitter.com/Pink/status/949541261844738048

Oh my, Pink allegedly suggesting the Super Bowl national anthem news was forthcoming and ripping Donald Trump in the same tweet? That’s spicy. Considering the emphasis the President of the United States has taken on the NFL and the national anthem, we can’t wait to see what the reaction could potentially be following Pink’s national anthem performance. But her hair really is pretty dope.

The national anthem performances over the years at the Super Bowl have been up and down. Beyonce crushed it in 2004 before the New England Patriots faced the Carolina Panthers in Houston, although it got a little extra dramatic at times (but hey, who am I to judge Beyonce, right?)…

Lady Gaga’s national anthem performance before Super Bowl 50 was really well done too, although a bit slower than I particularly like to hear.

The true gold standard for a national anthem performance, and not just before a Super Bowl, remains the one performed by Whitney Houston before Super Bowl XXV in 1991. Nobody has come close to matching it since, and it may be a long time before this performance is rivaled by any talented artist again.

Justin Timberlake will be performing at halftime of the Super Bowl this year, and one can only hope there is room on the stage for Pink to return for some halftime entertainment as well.

[The Wrap]

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.