Super Bowl 60: Black national anthem lyrics as Coco Jones takes the stage

1 hour ago 2

For Coco Jones, this Super Bowl appearance isn’t about stealing a moment. It’s about understanding what the moment already carries.

Jones will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing” during the Super Bowl 60 pregame, becoming the sixth artist to bring the Black national anthem to the league’s biggest stage. Before her, the song has been performed at the Super Bowl by Alicia Keys, Mary Mary, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Andra Day, and Ledisi. Jones now steps into that line, fully aware of what comes with it.

At the Apple Music Super Bowl press conference, she didn’t pretend the weight wasn’t there. “I’m a little nervous,” Jones said. “There are a lot of artists on that stage.” Then she grounded herself in why she belongs. “But realizing that I was selected makes me think, yeah, I deserve this opportunity.”

That mix of humility and confidence followed her throughout the session.

More: Charlie Puth leans on craft and control ahead of Super Bowl national anthem

This performance is personal. “My mom is very excited,” Jones said, smiling. “I already can’t wait to give her this opportunity to see me sing.” Looking back on her journey, she described the Super Bowl as something closing in on itself. “It’s like closing this whole circle for me.”

Jones was clear about how she plans to approach the song. No theatrics. No overstatement. “I really try to react naturally to the lyrics,” she said. “I want to really feel what the words mean to me.” The goal isn’t to reshape Lift Every Voice and Sing. It’s to honor it.

The song was written by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson. It was first performed publicly in 1900 by 500 schoolchildren in Jacksonville, Florida to celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.

Here are the powerful lyrics:

Lift every voice and singTill earth and heaven ringRing with the harmonies of LibertyLet our rejoicing riseHigh as the list'ning skies, let it resound loud as the rolling seaSing a song full of faith that the dark past has tought usSing a song full of the hope that the present has brought usFacing the rising sun of our new day begunLet us march on till victory is won

Stony the road we trodBitter the chast'ning rodFelt in the day that hope unborn had diedYet with a steady beatHave not our weary feetCome to the place on which our fathers sighed?We have come over a way that with tears has been wateredWe have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughteredOut from the gloomy past, till now we stand at lastWhere the white gleam of our star is cast

God of our weary yearsGod of our silent tearsThou who has brought us thus far on the wayThou who has by thy mightLed us into the lightKeep us forever in the path, we prayLest our feet stray frm the places, our God, where we met theeLeast our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget theeShadowed beneath the handMay we forever standTru to our GodTru to our native land

More: Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl moment: Why his authenticity beat out spectacle

She enters Super Bowl week with added attention as the fiancée of Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers, but she never leaned on that connection while speaking. Still, Mitchell made it clear just how much the moment means. Appearing on NBC’s Super Bowl pregame show, he said, “Obviously, I’m here for my fiancée…as soon as I saw her on the schedule, I knew I had to make my way out here.”

More: Brandi Carlile embraces Super Bowl moment in San Francisco

When asked about pressure, Jones didn’t overthink it. “I try not to think about the pressure,” she said. “I think about what this represents.”

Coco Jones is preparing to deliver something quieter and heavier. A song with history.

More sports news:

Read Entire Article