Reba McEntire to Perform at Super Bowl LVIII

Usher won’t be the only music superstar performing at Super Bowl LVIII. On Thursday, the NFL announced that Reba McEntire will sing the national anthem during the championship game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Feb. 11. This is a full-circle moment for the 68-year-old country music superstar who has more than 50 award wins under her belt. 

“2024 marks 50 years since I was discovered singing the National Anthem at the National Finals Rodeo,”  McEntire said in a statement, per PEOPLE, “and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate that anniversary.” McEntire is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Bowl. In her career, McEntire has won three Grammy Awards and has sold 58 million albums worldwide. She’s also known for her work as a movie and television actress, starring in shows like Reba, Young Sheldon and Big Sky. She can currently be seen on NBC’s competition series The Voice. 

While speaking with Parade last year, McEntire was asked he she ever thought about joining the top 40 world. “It did interest me,” she said. “I tried to do that. You know, the way I talk with my Southern accent, nowadays, it doesn’t matter. But back then, people said, “Yeah, we can’t make it happen.” I was fine with it. I can’t say it was a preference of mine to go pop—my people were just trying to broaden my audience. And if that wasn’t going to work, fine. We went a different direction with the Reba TV show [in 2001] and broadened my audience that way.” 

Performing the national anthem at the Super Bowl is a big deal. Some of the stars who have performed the “Star-Spangled Banner” at the Super Bowl are Garth Brooks, Billy Joel, Backstreet Boys, Beyoncé, Kelly Clarkson Jennifer Hudson, Lady Gaga, and Whitney Houston, and her rendition of the song is considered as one of the best in history since it happened during the Gulf War in 1991. 

“If you were there, you could feel the intensity,” Houston, who died in 2012, said during a 2000 interview, per Today. “We were in the Gulf War at the time. It was an intense time for our country. A lot of our daughters and sons were overseas fighting. I could see in the stadium, I could see the fear, the hope, the intensity, the prayers going up.”