“It’s going to feel so comfortable and it’s going to sound so good,” the singer-producer told Rolling Stone earlier this year
Charlie Puth kicked off the 2026 Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, singing the national anthem at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The hitmaker put an choral spin on the “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Puth performed the song on a Rhodes keyboard with a choir and orchestra backing him. The New Jersey native looked right at home in a brown leather jacket and jeans. Meanwhile, the choir and orchestra amped up Puth’s own vocals and reflected the musician’s prowess for composing radio-ready arrangements.
As the song ended and the Air Force flew planes over head, as is tradition, Puth looked up and seemingly took in the moment.
“I’ve actually always wanted to do this,’ Puth revealed while participating in theRolling Stone Interview earlier this year. “I just want to show people that I can do it,” he added. “I feel like people don’t really think of me as a standalone vocalist at times… It’ll be pressure the week leading up to it and the hour leading up to it,” he said in the same interview. “But once I’m there, it’s going to feel so comfortable and it’s going to sound so good.”
Prior to his performance, Brandi Carlile delivered an acoustic performance of “America the Beautiful.” Later in the evening, Bad Bunny will headline the Super Bowl halftime show.
Earlier this week, Puth joined Bad Bunny and the rest of the Super Bowl LX performers for the Apple Music halftime show press conference. “The arrangement is everything for me. I always reverse engineer how I hear my own music in my head, and then it’s just pulling it apart and making it a feasible product to to hold,” Puth told Apple music’s Zane Lowe. When asked what he hoped fans would take away from his performance of the national anthem, the singer responded, “I want them to feel inspired. I want everybody to know that music is such an amazing thing and can change so many people’s lives.”