Reba McEntire belted out the national anthem at the 2024 Super Bowl on Sunday, February 11, with her performance clocking in at one minute and 35 seconds.
The country singer, 68, sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas as the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers prepared to compete in Super Bowl LVIII. Daniel Durant accompanied McEntire’s rendition in American Sign Language.
McEntire, who wore a shimmering gold jacket over an all-black ensemble, belted the song as the American flag appeared on the Las Vegas sphere and U.S. Air Force jets took off into the sky.
While some casual Super Bowl viewers might not understand why the length of McEntire’s performance is important, betting on the time it takes the national anthem to be sung at the big game has become a popular tradition for football fans. Last year, Chris Stapleton finished the song in two minutes and one second, while Mickey Guyton completed it in one minute and 51 seconds the year before.
The NFL announced McEntire’s involvement in January. Although it was her first opportunity to perform at the Super Bowl, she almost passed it up.
McEntire revealed on CBS Mornings that when her manager informed her she had been asked to sing the national anthem, she responded, “Oh, my gosh, well, let me think about that.” Her boyfriend, Rex Linn — whom she has been dating since 2020 — immediately interjected, “Yes! Absolutely, she’ll do it.”
McEntire has plenty of experience with “The Star-Spangled Banner,” as the song helped launch her career.
“I’ve been singing the national anthem, well, a long time,” she explained. “But I started singing in 1974 singing the national anthem at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City. I sang the national anthem there for 10 years.”
As for how she prepares for the song, she shared: “You just warm up like you do a concert and sing it about five or six times and get in there and do it!”
Elsewhere in the pregame broadcast, Post Malone sang “America the Beautiful” and Andra Day performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” accompanied by Anjel Piñero and Shaheem Sanchez in ASL, respectively. Usher will take the stage later in the night for the halftime show.
McEntire was somewhat biased heading into the game because she is a Chiefs fan. In October 2023, she joked that she was “so devastated” to learn that Travis Kelce is dating Taylor Swift.
“Oh, my gosh, I am so mad at [Taylor] because I had a crush on him,” she told the Today show at the time. “Now I can’t have a crush anymore because he’s dating her.”
Although McEntire is in a long-term relationship of her own, Linn, 67, is not jealous of her infatuation with Kelce, 34. “We were watching him play because I love the Chiefs and I love Patrick [Mahomes], and I’d say, ‘Oh, he’s so cute,’” she recalled.
Once Swift, 34, and Kelce were linked, Linn teased McEntire, telling her, “Your boyfriend’s got another girlfriend,” to which she responded, “Rub it in.”
