This year, at Super Bowl XLVIII on Feb. 2, it won't be another pop diva or country music star singing the national anthem. Instead, soprano opera singer Renée Fleming, 54, will take on the job, and this will be the first time a classical musician has tackled "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the event.
The Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks will battle it out, and Fleming will start off the game. She has received four Grammy Awards and the National Medal of Arts. Previously, the honor has been given to Alicia Keys in 2013, Kelly Clarkson in 2012 and Christina Aguilera in 2011.
Fleming got her big break at the age of 29 by winning the annual Metropolitan Opera singing competition. She was later cast in operas in New York and San Francisco and performed at Carnegie Hall. She released Dark Hope in 2010, which included covers of songs by artists like Arcade Fire, Muse and Death Cab for Cutie. Clearly she's not the most conventional opera singer, and she's making a point to stay relevant in the music industry.
Although the reviews of Dark Hope weren't great, perhaps because she ventured into a different range and softer approach for the covers, she has still made an impression. She's singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl.
It isn't her first time singing the song at a major sports event. She sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" during the 2003 World Series at Yankee Stadium in New York. Also, during the Beijing Olympics in 2008, she sang several arias from the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square, and the following year she performed at Obama's inauguration in Washington.
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