Charlie Puth Turns the National Anthem Into a Stadium Choir at Super Bowl LX
Charlie Puth opened Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium with a choral, harmony‑driven version of “The Star‑Spangled Banner,” blending pop production instincts with classic anthem tradition in front of Patriots and Seahawks fans and a global TV audience.
Charlie Puth’s Super Bowl LX National Anthem: Pop Brain, Choral Heart
On a night built for spectacle, Charlie Puth managed to make the most over‑familiar song in America sound, briefly, new again. Standing at midfield in Santa Clara before the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks kicked off Super Bowl LX, Puth delivered a national anthem that leaned into stacked harmonies and choral voicings rather than diva‑style vocal gymnastics.
Why This Super Bowl Anthem Mattered
The Super Bowl national anthem has become its own mini‑event—somewhere between a patriotic ritual and a pop culture pressure cooker. From Whitney Houston’s benchmark 1991 performance to more recent readings by Lady Gaga and Chris Stapleton, each year’s singer is measured against decades of vocal lore, meme‑ready moments, and Vegas betting lines on the song’s length.
For the NFL and broadcast partners, booking Charlie Puth in 2026 made strategic sense. He’s a modern hitmaker and producer who lives at the intersection of TikTok virality, chart‑friendly songwriting, and Berklee‑trained musicianship. In other words, someone who can respect tradition while tweaking the arrangement just enough to get Twitter, TikTok, and sports radio talking.
Inside the Arrangement: A Choral Take on “The Star‑Spangled Banner”
Rather than attack the anthem like a pop power ballad, Puth treated it like a studio project brought to life on the 50‑yard line. The core idea: build a kind of one‑man choir, letting harmonies and stacked vocals carry the emotional weight.
- Opening restraint: He started relatively straight, sticking close to the melody with minimal ad‑libs, almost like a reference take in the studio.
- Gradual layering: As he moved into “rockets’ red glare,” you could hear the harmonies thicken—subtle thirds and fifths tucked under the lead vocal.
- Choral climax: By “land of the free,” the arrangement swelled into a full choral stack, giving the effect of a small choir blooming out from a single voice.
- Minimal melisma: Puth largely dodged the showy runs that often dominate Super Bowl anthems, opting for cleaner lines and tight harmony work.
It was less “watch me hit this note” and more “listen to how these notes fit together.” For a song that can easily tip into over‑singing, the choral approach felt surprisingly modern—more in line with a viral a cappella arrangement or a cinematic trailer cue than a classic R&B showcase.
Vocal Performance: Studio Precision on Live TV
Puth built his career as much on his producer ear as his voice, and that showed. The performance leaned into precision rather than raw power—pitch‑secure, controlled, and mixed to foreground the blend of parts over sheer volume.
Where some anthem singers treat the song like a final round of a singing competition, Puth’s choices were closer to how a producer thinks: maintain a consistent tone, avoid clashing with the harmony stack, and pace the dynamics so the last 20 seconds hit hardest.
“Puth didn’t try to out‑Whitney anyone. Instead, he pulled the anthem into his world—one built on tightly arranged harmonies and a producer’s sense of build.”
How Fans and Critics Reacted
As with almost every Super Bowl performance in the social‑media era, response was split along familiar lines: people who want tradition untouched, and people who want something they haven’t heard a thousand times. Puth’s version landed in the middle—recognizably the anthem, but produced with a modern ear.
- Sports fans largely praised the lack of grandstanding; the song didn’t drag, and it avoided controversy.
- Music nerds fixated on the arrangement choices, some loving the “one‑man choir” concept, others wishing he’d gone even bolder.
- Casual viewers seemed to register it as “classy, not flashy”—pleasant, polished, and quickly overshadowed by kickoff.
“It felt like someone finally asked, ‘What if the anthem sounded like the choruses on his records?’” — social media commentary, paraphrased from live reactions
How It Stacks Up: From Whitney to Stapleton to Puth
Any new Super Bowl national anthem has to live in the shadow of past heavyweights. Puth’s choral spin doesn’t try to compete on the same axis as Whitney Houston’s 1991 performance or Chris Stapleton’s soulful 2023 rendition; instead, it slides into a different lane entirely.
- Whitney Houston (1991): Orchestral, soaring, definitive. The template for “go big or go home.”
- Lady Gaga (2016): Theatrical and precise, marrying Broadway drama with pop polish.
- Chris Stapleton (2023): Stripped‑back, bluesy, emotionally raw—almost anti‑spectacle.
- Charlie Puth (2026): Arranged, harmony‑driven, and producer‑minded—a studio brain at a football cathedral.
In that context, Puth’s performance reads less like a new “best ever” and more like a signpost for where big‑stage performances are heading: toward arrangements that sound like the records people stream every day, not just one‑night‑only vocal Olympics.
Industry Angle: The NFL, Pop Strategy, and Streaming Clips
Beyond the music, there’s a clear business logic to putting Charlie Puth at midfield. The NFL gets:
- A chart‑tested pop name with cross‑generational recognition.
- Built‑in social reach and a fanbase primed to share clips across TikTok and Instagram.
- A performance that’s musically distinctive enough to replay in highlight packages and “best anthem” rankings.
For Puth, the calculus is simple: the Super Bowl remains one of the last true monoculture events. Even a three‑minute slot can spike catalog streams, drive new listeners to his latest projects, and reinforce his reputation not just as a hitmaker, but as a musical architect who can handle the biggest of big stages.
Review Verdict: A Thoughtful, If Not Earth‑Shattering, Reframing
As a piece of live television, Charlie Puth’s Super Bowl LX national anthem is unlikely to dethrone the all‑time greats in the cultural memory. But that’s not really the point. What it does offer is a smart, musically coherent reframing of a song that often gets bent out of shape by pure vocal showmanship.
The choral treatment plays to his strengths: ear for harmony, sense of build, and a refusal to oversing. The trade‑off is that some viewers expecting a “big moment” might have found it a touch understated, more technically impressive than emotionally overwhelming.
Still, as a snapshot of where mainstream performance is headed—toward meticulous arrangements that sound like the streaming era—it’s an intriguing document. It’s Charlie Puth not trying to out‑belt anyone, but quietly arguing that, even at the Super Bowl, the arrangement can be the star.
Overall rating: 4/5
Credits and Further Reading
Super Bowl LX National Anthem Performance – Charlie Puth
Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, California
2026-02-08
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