Here’s the Grammy winning ‘Bel-Air’ star who sang national anthem at Chiefs-Ravens game

Coco Jones was a little girl wearing pink fingernail polish the first time she sang the national anthem in front of an NFL crowd. It was in St. Louis where her father, Mike Jones, was a defensive lineman for the Rams before he retired.

On Thursday, she sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the Kansas City Chiefs-Baltimore Ravens game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

Jones is 26 now, a rising R&B singer with 4.6 million Instagram followers. Earlier this year she was nominated for five Grammys and won for Best R&B Performance for her hit, “ICU,” which went platinum.

Her latest single, “Sweep It Up,” has people dancing with brooms all over TikTok.

Her performance at Arrowhead followed up a highly praised rendition of the national anthem last year during the NBA playoffs.

Jones began acting at 14 in the 2012 Disney Channel film, “Let It Shine.” Fans know her now as rich girl Hilary Banks in Peacock’s “Bel-Air,” a dramatic reimagining of Will Smith’s hit comedy, “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” The show is now in its third season.

Jones is currently getting buzz for singing a new, soulful rendition of the nothing’s-going-to-stop-me song, “Almost There,” from Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog.” The music video, released last month during World Princess Week, has fans clamoring to see her as Princess Tiana in a live-action remake of the 2009 animated film.

Usher is a fan, too. In June, Jones got guests at the BET Awards out of their seats — including Usher — when she sang a sultry version of his hit, “There Goes My Baby.”

She has officially hit that “level of stardom where TikTokers recognize and chase her during routine Target runs,” HuffPost recently noted.

And even though her father is retired, she remains NFL family. Her brother, Mike Jones Jr., plays for the Atlanta Falcons.

Jones has spoken often about how her parents, now divorced, supported her aspirations. Her mother, Javonda Jones, was a session vocalist who put that firsthand knowledge of the entertainment world to work for her daughter.

Her father played for four teams from 1991 to 1999, including the Phoenix (now Arizona) Cardinals, New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans.

“She’s always been my baby,” he told ESPN in a Father’s Day interview in 2012 as she was just starting to work with Disney.

“When she did the national anthem at a football game once, I was sweating and more nervous than when I was in the Super Bowl. We have a very close family, and we call her our clutch performer.”

She was particularly excited to work on the “Almost There” music video, part of Disney’s “Create Your World” campaign to have musicians from a variety of genres reimagine classic Disney Princess songs.

“I was so excited to get involved with the Disney Princess ‘Create Your World’ campaign because I feel like princesses have always been such an inspiration to me and my little sister as we grew up,” she said in a statement when the video debuted.


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“I love the representation that Tiana has on the world and on young Black girls and it’s really exciting for me to be a part of continuing to make these classic, beautiful songs with beautiful messaging more modern and see what new generation they inspire.”

Now signed to Def Jam, Jones is planning to release her debut album this fall, hoping to watch it sweep to No. 1 on Billboard.