No “Joke”: Brandi Carlile is one of the few vocalists out there with so powerhouse of a voice, she could almost be considered overqualified to sing “America the Beautiful.” That’s what she’ll be doing just prior to Super Bowl LX kicking off on Sunday, and although it is not always considered to be as demanding as its patriotic twin, “The Star Spangled Banner,” Carlile promises that she’ll be performing it at the upper end of her range, which may mean that this seemingly gentler song will have its own bombs bursting in air, musically speaking.
What does it mean to her to be singing “America the Beautiful,” though, at a time where not everyone in the country is thinking beautiful thoughts about the state of the nation? Carlile has thought plenty about that, as you’d expect from someone with such a history of activism. It means something to her to be on the biggest stage the world has to offer as a representative of the queer community, and she’s also mindful that the historic song itself was co-written by a woman believed by many to be gay. Most of all, she is tuned in to the lyrics, which, if you’ve ever really read through them all, are more aspirational than triumphal. While “America the Beautiful” may never get officially adopted as the national anthem, as some have suggested over the years, i’s a song anyone who believes in the promise of America could, and maybe should, sing.
Variety spoke with Carlile on Friday as she prepared for her worldwide TV moment Sunday… with scant time to be too focused on a global arena tour that begins just two days later.
On the most practical level: Performing at the Super Bowl, with an audience of over 125 million viewers, is scary to a lot of people. But if you sing something as demanding as “The Joke” every night without fail, you probably can’t be that worried about hitting the notes on “America the Beautiful,” can you?
No, I’m a little worried about it. I put it in a key that’s right at the ceiling there for me, and so I’m gonna come out swinging.
What kind of arrangement are you giving it, and who’ll accompany you?
It’s going to be me and SistaStrings. So it’s gonna be sort of a melodically centered version, instead of a rhythmically centered version.
Have you sung “America the Beautiful” before? And for that matter, going through the patriotic pantheon, have you ever sung “The Star Spangled Banner”?
Yeah, I sang “The Star Spangled Banner” a couple of times in high school, and I sang it for the Seattle Storm a couple of times early on when I was really young, and then I sang it once for the Seahawks in one really, really big game [in 2015]. That is a really, really hard song. So I’ve sung that one before. But I’ve never sung “America the Beautiful.” I’ve been hearing it my whole life, but I do remember when I first sort of clocked it. I was invited to the White House when Obama was president to sing on the lawn on the 4th of July, and Brandon Flowers [frontman of the Killers] sang it. I just remember hearing it that way, as a modern song, and I was like, “Oh, that is a beautiful song” — beautiful melodically, and lyrically beautiful. Other than that, my exposure to it has been that the definitive versions of the song have been Ray Charles and Whitney Houston, and those versions can’t be touched.
Many people hear the imagery in the first verse, which is what is usually performed, and think, “Oh, it’s a scenery song,” first and foremost. And there is that aspect — the lyricist, Katharine Lee Bates, had recently been to Pikes Peak. But it’s really a pretty heavy song, in a lot of ways, when you listen to or read through the whole thing. It says, about America, “God mend thine every flaw…”
“…Confirm thy soul in self-control / Thy liberty in law”! Yeah. I don’t want to put words in her mouth; she was beyond brilliant. But it almost feels almost like she was feeling the way about the country when she wrote it that I’m feeling today singing it. Just this fragile hope, love and belief in where it could be, and acknowledging where it’s been, and acknowledging that we’re not there yet. And 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.
There might be a different way that we all sort of receive the song, in calmer times. But even without hearing every verse that was written, there may be something about it that, in a time of trouble and division, will be moving for people who are really tuned into it. You’re feeling that.
Yeah. And I think if we’re gonna save this country as a people, we have to be reminded on some level that deep down we love it.
There’s obviously controversy around the Super Bowl music this year. Some MAGA people are unhappy enough about Bad Bunny to be having a alternative halftime show. I don’t know if you’ve experienced any controversy personally, but I can sort of imagine that, on the one end, there might be at least a few people out there on the MAGA end of things questioning what it means to be having a gay person sing a patriotic song this year. And then on other end of the scale, there might be some of your most progressive fans wondering if their favorite singer should participating in anything patriotic right now, when the nation is troubled. Basically, there is some baggage connected to this year’s Super Bowl.
There is, you’re right.
But, obviously you’re feeling very proud of being there, and you’ve said that you feel like queer representation matters in a moment like this — the biggest show on earth, basically.
Yeah. And 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. 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.
In researching the song, I know you took an interest in Katharine Lee Bates, who was a social activist and very involved in the world in that way, as well as being a poet. And people have speculated, “Was she gay?” or not, and there may never be a definitive answer to that…
Clearly gay.
Okay.
Totally gay! [Laughs.]
Knowing about her and what she stood for and, and how interesting her life was, that’s something that’s obviously not going to be known to most of America. There won’t be factoids appearing on screen like it’s a “VH1 Pop-Up Video.” But it’s something that must help inform why you love the song, or at least it means something to you.
Yeah, it absolutely does. 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. And still choosing — even in that total oppression; even not being able to be married; even not even being able to say that she was gay, or to be elevated to the heights that she probably deserved to be elevated to in politics — and, during those times, to still love America and to still believe that it could get to a place of goodness. I won’t say greatness, because that feels a little, you know, patriarchal. But goodness. And I believe the same thing. And I have a sliver of the struggle ahead of and behind me that she was facing in her day.
So, you know, this is an interesting song. And it’s an interesting decision that I’m making. I definitely don’t want to be seen as 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.
Your fans likely understand you are not taking lightly what the mood of the nation is right now, or at least of different parts of the nation.
No. But I’m not gonna waste my time in the pit fights. My activism isn’t gonna be in the comments section. And, you know, I may not be everyone’s kind of activist, but like I said, I have my own moral imperative that I have to go to sleep with at night.
Anything to say about the bill overall? It’s such an eclectic, interesting collection of people, between you, Bad Bunny, Coco Jones and Charlie Puth. And, as previously stated, controversial in some ways.
And it shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be. It looks exactly like America! It looks exactly like the United States. It looks like the players on the field, and it looks like the people that are watching the sport. And that’s how it should look, with a lot of demographics represented, and a lot of enthusiastic people excited to celebrate a huge game on a unifying day. And I think that the folks that put together the entertainment portion of the Super Bowl this year just did a bang-up job. It’s really good. Bad Bunny’s incredible —an incredible spirit and performer. It’s gonna be a fabulous halftime show.
On the most trivial level, you were approaching this not just thinking of social statements, or what songs and performers in the mix, but as a football fan.
Maybe more so than ever.
Your hometown rooting interest is well-established. You’re not going to wear a Seahawks jersey while you sing, are you? You probably couldn’t get away with that?
You’re not allowed to. But I’ll have a Seahawks jersey on in my heart. You know, people say to me, “Oh, isn’t it complicated and difficult to get involved in something like the Super Bowl in these times?” And there’s a lot of validity to that observation. I don’t disagree. But it does get a little easier when it’s your team. [Laughs.] You’d be really surprised, right?
After it’s all over, you get to go take it easy and relax for a few weeks, right? Sorry, that’s a joke. Your first arena tour kicks off two nights after the Super Bowl, in Philadelphia. We saw a preview of the tour set at your Girls Just Wanna Weekend festival in mid-January, and it seemed extremely well-rehearsed, so you probably don’t have jitters about going directly into that in just a few days.
I’m so glad it came off as well-rehearsed to you. That was our first one, and then we had some rehearsals after that, and I think it’s even gotten better. So, yeah, I’m really anxious and excited to get out on the road. I don’t think I will relax until I get the first show or two under my belt.
The 1911 lyrics for “America the Beautiful”:
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
English (US) ·