Who is 'Black national anthem' singer Andra Day?
For some of the projected 113 million Super Bowl 2024 viewers, the evening has nothing to do with the game. Instead, it's all about the food and the music — and the NFL is supplying the second with flair.
Singer, actor, and activist Andra Day will take the Super Bowl LVIII stage Sunday to perform what is known as the Black national anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing." The song was written as a poem in 1900 by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson and was used as a rallying cry during the Civil Rights Movement.
Day will be joined by Reba McEntire, who will sing the national anthem, Post Malone, who will sing "America the Beautiful," and Usher, who will headline the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show. Adam Blackstone will produce both Day's "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and McEntire's national album. Shaheem Sanchez will sign "Lift Every Voice and Sing" in ASL.
Likely, this isn't your first introduction to Day, but if it is, buckle up because she has quite a catalog.
Day's initial foray into fame was thanks to her 2016 Grammy-nominated song, "Rise Up," which has over 1 billion streams. Her first-ever feature film, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, earned Day an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and two Golden Globes: One for Actress in a Drama Motion Picture and one for Original Song in a Motion Picture. She was also, if you can believe it, a voice actor in Pixar's Cars 3, where she played Sweet Tea.
If you want to watch Day perform on Super Bowl Sunday, you'll need to turn the show on a bit before the Big Game starts, since she's part of the pre-game event on Sun., Feb. 11. You can watch the 2024 Super Bowl and, importantly, all of the entertainment on CBS, Paramount+, live TV streaming services like YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, DirecTV Stream, and Fubo.
The Chiefs vs. 49ers kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET.