Ralph announced that the news she would be performing the song on Twitter. ‘123 years ago today Lift Every Voice and Sing was performed publicly for the 1st time. Today I will sing it for the 1st time as part of the @SuperBowl pre game show in the stadium!’ she wrote on Sunday morning.
The song was sung before both Super Bowl LV and LVI, performed by Alicia Keys in 2021 and Mary Mary in 2022. However Ralph was the first person to have sung the song on the actual field. Both previous performances were broadcast as pre-recorded clips.
The song was originally a poem written by James Weldon Johnson, a former NAACP leader. Its lyrics describe the struggles and aspirations of black Americans at the turn of the 20th century.
The NFL began playing the song before NFL games in the 2020 season after the protests that came in the wake of the killings at the hands of the police of George Floyd and Breonna Ta
ylor.
