Jazmine Sullivan's mom and dad were two of the 22,000 fans allowed into the seating area
at Super Bowl LV . They had to be. Their daughter was one of its undisputed stars.
Sullivan stepped into Raymond James Stadium decked in white with a crystal Area headpiece,
paying homage to Whitney Houston, who wore a similar headpiece in her film The Bodyguard
and sang the anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl.
"Nobody can do a better version than Whitney. So you definitely have something to live up to."
And that's how the 2021 Super Bowl started - as a story of inspiration. As it turns out,
Houston was also a fan of Sullivan's. Missy Elliot once introduced Houston
to a song Sullivan sang when she was just 15 years old, and it blew Houston's socks off.
It's hard to imagine country superstar Eric Church not having the jitters before his duet
with Sullivan. In the lead up to performing the national anthem with the "Bust Your Windows"
singer, he gushed to Variety that Sullivan "may be the best singer" he'd ever heard.
Church added that he'd listened to every single song that Sullivan recorded after finding out
he'd be singing with her. And though it was Church who started singing the national anthem,
it was Sullivan's entrance that had us, and the rest of Twitter, holding our breath.
To quote one astonished listener:
"In lieu of watching the Super Bowl, I'm going to spend the next 3 hours
pondering the miracle and mechanics of jsullivanmusic's vocal cords."
Not everybody on social media was as positive, though. It's not that the critics of the
performance wanted less of Sullivan or thought the performance was bad. Quite the opposite;
they were clamoring for a whole lot more. And not without reason. Eric Church got roughly 16
seconds of solo screen time while he was opening the anthem. When it was Sullivan's turn for a solo
shot, a full 35 seconds into the performance, she garnered about ten seconds to herself.
And yet, her voice dominated. As Huffington Post editor Philip Lewis was quick to point out,
"Jazmine Sullivan should have done this by herself."
And, as another upset fan virtually intoned:
"I don't like that Jazmine Sullivan has to share her moment."
Jazmine Sullivan herself may have a different take on the Super Bowl performance, however.
She told the Associated Press of her collaboration with Church,
"We come from two very different backgrounds, [but] I find beauty in blending different
lifestyles and different music [and] different art and making something special. I definitely
think that's what we accomplished and I think it'll be really good."
Eric Church wanted similar things out of his duet with Sullivan. He joked to Today,
"Basically, if I can stay out of her way, we're golden."
Church agreed to perform at the Super Bowl in the
wake of the U.S. Capitol riot to send a message of togetherness. He reflected,
"We're unifying. And it's a time in our country when we have to do that."
Sullivan could very well have belted out a show-stopping national anthem on her own,
but in performing a duet with Church, she's following in the footsteps of giants.
Today reports that Sullivan and Church are only the second pair in Super Bowl history to team up
to sing the "The Star-Spangled Banner." The other pair to sing it together is a doozy: In 2006,
Aretha Franklin and Aaron Neville took on the anthem as a duo.
And Sullivan's Super Bowl performance marks the 30th anniversary of Whitney Houston's rendition,
which also took place in Tampa, Florida. And like Sullivan and Church, when Houston sang in 1991,
she was performing the national anthem at a time when the country was uncertain about its future.
People noted Houston's comments nine years later:
"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."
Her Super Bowl XXV performance, which she styled after Marvin Gaye,
would be remembered as one of the greatest renditions of the national anthem in Super
Bowl history. Sullivan's with Church could be honored similarly in time.
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