{"id":239285,"date":"2026-05-09T15:10:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/09\/eric-church-wanted-to-make-national-anthem-at-2021-super-bowl-unifying-during-a-weird-time\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T15:10:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:10:58","slug":"eric-church-wanted-to-make-national-anthem-at-2021-super-bowl-unifying-during-a-weird-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/09\/eric-church-wanted-to-make-national-anthem-at-2021-super-bowl-unifying-during-a-weird-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Church Wanted to Make National Anthem at 2021 Super Bowl \u2018Unifying\u2019 During a \u2018Weird Time\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Country singer Eric Church<\/b><\/a> had a clear message in mind when he was tasked with performing the national anthem at the 2021 Super Bowl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a weird time,\u201d Church, 49, said on the Wednesday, May 6, episode of the \u201cHometown Titans\u201d podcast<\/span><\/a>, recalling his headlining moment in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and a turbulent political landscape.<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cIt was also a good time, at least for doing that, because the Super Bowl was still the thing the country was going to watch when we did not know what was happening anywhere else, and I knew that. The way we crafted the performance and the way we tried to do it was make it\u00a0 a unifying thing of, \u2018I don\u2019t know where we\u2019re going to go, but we\u2019re going to go there together and it\u2019s going to be OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Church teamed up with Jazmine Sullivan<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span> <\/b>for a rendition of \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d at the Super Bowl LV, where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ultimately beat the Kansas City Chiefs. He believed the performance would be a \u201cpowerful\u201d statement given the NFL championship took place one month after the January 2021 insurrection in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

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\n Related: <\/span>How Erika Kirk Says the Alternative Halftime Show Honors Husband Charlie<\/span><\/a>
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\n\t\t\tErika Kirk says Turning Point USA\u2019s alternative Super Bowl LIX halftime show is meant to honor her late husband, Charlie Kirk. \u201cIt\u2019s powerful because what Charlie always loved and knew is that he wanted to be in the forefront of the culture war,\u201d Erika, 37, said in a Fox News interview on Wednesday, February 4. [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

(Then-outgoing president Donald Trump<\/b>\u2019s followers stormed the U.S. Capitol while Congress was tasked with certifying Joe Biden<\/b>\u2019s 2020 presidential election win.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWith what\u2019s going on in America, it feels like an important time for a patriotic moment,\u201d Church told the Los Angeles Times<\/i><\/span><\/a> <\/i>in February 2021. \u201cAn important time for unity. The fact that I\u2019m a Caucasian country singer and she\u2019s an African American R&B singer \u2014 I think the country needs that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden, 83, served as U.S. president from 2021 to 2025. Trump, 79, began his second term in the White House in January 2025, overlapping with both the 2025 and 2026 Super Bowls.<\/p>\n

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