Sheryl Lee Ralph owns the limelight. The Abbott Elementary standout soaked up her first career Emmy win last fall, accepting flowers from Kid Cudi and another gift from Beyoncé. Ralph didn’t let 2022 before asserting her star power in different way, as she starred in Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty Vol. 4 show.
And so, no, Ralph was not here for anyone trying to dim her light at Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, February 12. She performed “Lift Every Voice And Sing,” the Black national anthem, before the Kansas City Chiefs kicked off against the Philadelphia Eagles at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
Ralph was extremely excited to be part of such a historic moment, boosted by the fact that Super Bowl LVII was the first-ever Super Bowl to feature two Black quarterbacks in Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes and Philly’s Jalen Hurts:
It is no coincidence that I will be singing the Black National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing at the Super Bowl on the same date it was first publicly performed 123 years ago (February 12, 1900). Happy Black History Month! @nfl @rocnation @SavageXFenty
Tune in at 3pm/6pmEST. pic.twitter.com/1rPopQ9jtV
— sheryl lee ralph (@thesherylralph) February 12, 2023
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! pic.twitter.com/Mh805zQbX5
— sheryl lee ralph (@thesherylralph) February 12, 2023
Sheryl Lee Ralph opens #SUPERBOWL LVII. pic.twitter.com/lDTfT5EvO2
— Complex Pop Culture (@ComplexPop) February 12, 2023
But there were a few haters who speculated that Ralph lip-synced her powerful performance.
“Does it matter? Does it matter? No. Thank you,” Ralph told The Hollywood Reporter in response to the criticism.
She added, “It’s just so amazing that they chose me. And then the Eagles are in the Super Bowl. I mean, come on. You know God must be a woman because all of this is just too perfect.”
Ralph noted to THR that the significance of signing in a Super Bowl in which the Eagles were competing in mattered to her because “Abbott Elementary takes place in Philadelphia. My husband is a senator in Philadelphia. And this year the Eagles [went] to the Super Bowl — I had already been chosen to sing.”
Unfortunately for Ralph and all Philadelphians, the Eagles fell to the Chiefs 38-35.
