Country singer Mickey Guyton delivers flawless ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ at the Super Bowl

14 February 2022, 12:21 | Updated: 15 February 2022, 18:12

In one of the most high-pressure gigs for any singer, Mickey Guyton stunned millions with her virtuosic vocal delivery at the Super Bowl LVI.

With spine-chilling harmonies from her backing choir and vocal embellishments aplenty, country artist Mickey Guyton delivered a stunning solo take on ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at the Super Bowl LVI.

Guyton performed the US national anthem for a live audience at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California as the traditional prelude to Sunday’s match, which took place between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams.

Grammy-nominated Guyton made history last year, when she became not only the first Black female country singer to perform at the Grammy Awards, but the first Black woman to be nominated for a country music award at the ceremony.

“It’s Black History Month [in the United States], and a black country singer gets to sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. Wow,” Guyton told The New York Post. “This is a huge moment for me. It’s a huge moment for Black people. And I want to represent that in the best possible way that I can.”

Read more: The 8 most memorable performances of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ of all time

Child has hilarious reaction to Mickey Guyton's stunning Super Bowl performance

Guyton, who began her singing journey performing in church choirs as a child, told the LA Times she was dubbed ‘the national anthem girl’ in high school after performing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ so many times.

Poignantly, Guyton was first inspired to sing professionally after she saw fellow country artist LeAnn Rimes sing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at the start of a Texas Rangers game.

Alongside Rimes, Guyton has cited Whitney Houston as one of her musical influences, saying she grew up “mesmerised by big-voiced women”.

Her 2022 Super Bowl performance has been hailed by many as “the best rendition since Whitney Houston”.

Read more: What are the lyrics to The Star-Spangled Banner?

Speaking to the Post, Guyton added: “I set my intentions with singing the national anthem. I was like, ‘OK, togetherness is what I really want’.

“So, I felt the way that people would feel togetherness is if I had a choir, with people that I believe represent America. And, you know, I have everybody from my black queen to a redneck cowboy to a girl that has one leg in this choir. And that’s the America that I’m proud of — us all standing together. We all belong.”

In the warm-up to her performance, viewers were also keeping an ear out for the length of Guyton’s national anthem – which, according to the LA Times, clocked up at 1 minute, 50 seconds.

The answer was trending on Sunday night, as sports wagers placed bets on how long the country singer’s performance would be.

In the history of singers taking on the US national anthem, piano man Billy Joel delivered the shortest, at 1 minute, 30 seconds, and singer-songwriter Alicia Keys the longest, at 2 minutes, 35 seconds, according to statistics published by TheScore.com. The average is just over Guyton’s take, at 1 minute and 56 seconds.

Statistics aside, Guyton’s performance will undoubtably go down as one of the best in Super Bowl national anthem history. A stunning performance.