Why Brandi Carlile Chose To Sing “America the Beautiful” At The Super Bowl
In a politically fraught moment, Carlile viewed the Super Bowl performance as a chance to acknowledge the country’s complexity.
Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images
When Brandi Carlile agreed to perform “America the Beautiful” ahead of Super Bowl LX, she understood the scope of the assignment.
Speaking to Variety in the days leading up to the game, Carlile framed her choice in personal terms and did not mince words. “I have my own moral code, my own moral imperative, that I have to answer to at the end of the day, as a wife and mother, and I believe in my ability and responsibility to do this, and that’s why I’m here,” she said. As an openly queer artist, she was clear about what that visibility meant. “And the throughline to being queer and being a representative of a marginalized community and being put on the largest stage in America to acknowledge the fraught and tender hope that this country is based on, it’s something you don’t say no to. You do it.”
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Part of what drew her to “America the Beautiful” specifically was the song’s tone. Unlike more triumphalist patriotic anthems, its lyrics are aspirational and self critical, asking the country to “mend thine every flaw.” Carlile has described the song as heavy rather than celebratory, rooted in hope rather than blind nationalism. “That’s what I think is so American about that song — that total celebration is not in order; that our prayers are still in order. But that the only way to move forward is with belief,” she told Variety.
Her connection to the song deepened as she learned more about its lyricist, Katharine Lee Bates, a poet and social activist believed by many historians to have been gay. Carlile spoke candidly about how that lineage mattered to her. “You know, I feel called to a long line of contemplative and struggling people. I feel motivated by the fact that she was very likely gay, and a woman relying on her intellect in a time when that was difficult for women to do so, and living with a partner who was doing the same thing,” she said. Bates’ choice to love the country while fully aware of its limitations resonated strongly. “And still choosing — even in that total oppression; even not being able to be married; even not being able to say that she was gay… to still love America and to still believe that it could get to a place of goodness.”
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Carlile was careful to distinguish belief from complacency. “I won’t say greatness, because that feels a little, you know, patriarchal. But goodness,” she added. She has been explicit that she does not want her performance to be read as an endorsement of the status quo. “I definitely don’t want to be seen as a neoliberal or as someone who’s glossing over the problems that we have in this country. I want to be seen as one of the people that’s helping.”
“I’m not gonna waste my time in the pit fights. My activism isn’t gonna be in the comments section,” she explained.
