NEW ORLEANS — Grammy Award-winning R&B powerhouse Ledisi will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome on Sunday, marking another historic moment for the song often called the Black National Anthem.
Who is Ledisi?
The New Orleans native has had an impressive career spanning R&B, jazz, and soul. Ledisi has earned 15 Grammy nominations and won Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Anything For You.”
Her selection adds to a lineup of Louisiana-connected artists for this year’s pregame ceremonies, including Trombone Shorty, Lauren Daigle and Jon Batiste.
Ledisi’s mother Nyra Dynese was a soul singer, her stepfather Joseph Pierce III a drummer, her biological father Larry Saunders a singer and her grandfather was blues artist Johnny Ace.
In recent years, Ledisi has garnered critical acclaim for her jazz performances, particularly her Nina Simone tribute album “Ledisi Sings Nina” with the Metropole Orkest and New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. John Legend has praised her as “one of the great singers in the world,” noting her exceptional range and versatility.
What is ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’?
“Lift Every Voice and Sing” is a hymn with lyrics written by James Weldon Johnson. The hymn is also known as “The Black National Anthem.”
According to the NAACP, where Johnson served as executive secretary at the time the hymn was written, the song was “prominently used as a rallying cry during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.”
Johnson’s brother composed the music for the hymn, which was initially written as a poem.
The organization said it was first performed in public by a choir of 500 schoolchildren from the segregated Stanton School in Jacksonville, Florida, where Johnson was principal. It was performed to celebrate President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.
It became the official song of the NAACP in 1919. It has been performed at the Super Bowl since 2021.