Super Bowl: Ledisi Performs “Lift Every Voice and Sing” With 125 New Orleans Students
Ledisi took to the field at Super Bowl LIX on Sunday to deliver a powerful performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Ledisi, a New Orleans native, was joined during the pregame portion of the game by 125 youth choir members from the Greater New Orleans High School Chorale Collective to perform the song in honor of its 125th anniversary.
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The song, which is referred to as “The Black National Anthem,” was written in 1900 by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson as a poem, with music by his brother, John Rosamond Johnson, according to the NAACP website. The song was first performed that year by a choir of 500 schoolchildren at a segregated school in Florida where James Weldon Johnson served as principal. That performance also was part of a celebration of President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.
Watch Ledisi’s Super Bowl performance below.
Super Bowl LIX is taking place at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans and airing live on Fox. The Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles are facing off again after meeting up in the big game two years ago, when the Chiefs prevailed.
This is the Chiefs’ their third straight Super Bowl after winning in both 2023 and 2024. The Chiefs triumphed over the San Francisco 49ers last year. They also won in 1970 and in 2020.
This marks the second time in three years that the Eagles have made it to the game, and the fifth time in franchise history. The Eagles have one Super Bowl win to their credit, in 2018.
If Kansas City triumphs at the game, it would become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls.
Also during the pregame entertainment, Jon Batiste performed the National Anthem, and Trombone Shorty and Lauren Daigle performed “America the Beautiful.” Other performers included Lady Gaga and Harry Connick Jr. with jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard, the Soul Rebels and the Original Pinettes.
Check out The Hollywood Reporter‘s Super Bowl coverage here.
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