Gabrielle Sarmiento Wilson, more commonly known as H.E.R., performed “America The Beautiful” tonight as a part of the opening act of the 2021 Super Bowl, where the Kansas City Chiefs are playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Prior to H.E.R.’s performance, Eric Church and Jazmine Sullivan sang the National Anthem.
When asked about the upcoming performance, H.E.R. stated, “Honestly, I am so excited to just be performing at the Super Bowl. It’s a huge stage and it doesn’t get any bigger, you know? But I think the goal, for me, is to make [the song] my own. I’m a huge fan of the different versions of ‘America The Beautiful,’ but I really want to bring some different elements in there…make it H.E.R.”
H.E.R. also went on to elaborate on how important it is to her to be able to be doing something like this because of her background as well as the importance of the message it sends to other young Black women. “I think the No. 1 thing I think about a lot is the fact that I’m a young Black girl from the Bay area, that never imagined I would be on a stage like that. I think it’s a message to other young Black women that you can do it too.”
The Vallejo, California-bred singer-songwriter recently released a new song titled “Fight For You” for the upcoming film Judas and the Black Messiah. The track won the 2021 Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song. She also recently released new song titled “B.S.” with Jhené Aiko. The track is from Aiko’s most recent album Chilombo, which was released in March last year.
H.E.R. was originally on the bill for the 2020 Lollapalooza lineup, which had to be canceled due to COVID-19. However, the festival still held a virtual festival event in late July into early August last year to make up for the in-person event being canceled. Artists like Metallica, Alison Wonderland, The Neighbourhood, Yungblud and more were alongside H.E.R. on the bill.
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