singing Brandi Carlile is opening up about why she, as an openly gay artist, chose to sing “America the Beautiful” a Super Bowl LX despite that of the country turbulent and conflicting political times.
“I have my own moral code, my own moral imperative, that I have to answer to at the end of the day, as a woman and as a mother, and I believe in my ability and responsibility to do that, and that’s why I’m here,” Carlile, 44. he said variety in an interview published on Saturday, February 7.
“And the hotline for being queer and being representative of a marginalized community and being put on the biggest stage in America to acknowledge the tense and tender hope that this country is built on, that’s something you don’t say no to,” he added. “You do it.”
The Grammy and Emmy Award-winning singer-songwriter will perform “America the Beautiful” before Super Bowl 60 between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots on Sunday, February 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Carlile will perform as part of a packed pregame lineup, featuring Green Day and a rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” by Charlie Pluthbefore Bad Bunny take the Midway through the 2026 Super Bowl stage
While there is sure to be plenty of drama on the field, Bad Bunny and the controversy The environment of his next performance has been dominating the headlines after conservative, Republican politicians, including the president donald trump — and pundits have chastised the NFL for choosing a Puerto Rican artist who performs in Spanish as their starter.
(Despite the claims of many conservatives, Bad Bunny, real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is American since Puerto Rico is an American territory.)
Brandi Carlile
Getty Images“You may not know this, but I’m doing the Super Bowl halftime show,” Bad Bunny told the audience as he introduced Saturday night live in October 2025, tackling the controversy head-on. “I’m very happy and I think everyone is very happy about it! Even Fox News . . .”
He added, “Seriously, I’m really excited to be doing the Super Bowl and I know the people around the world who love my music are happy too.”
Bad Bunny then spoke in Spanish, before returning to address the audience and viewers in English.
“If you don’t understand what I just said now, you have four months to learn!”
While talking to varietyCarlile also addressed the division surrounding the upcoming Super Bowl.
“It shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be,” Carlile said in the post of how controversial the halftime show has become. “It looks exactly like America! It looks exactly like the States. It looks like the layers of the field, and it looks like the people who are watching the sport. And it should be, with a lot of demographics represented and a lot of excited people excited to celebrate a great game on a unifying day.”
Brandi Carlile and her wife, Catherine Shepherd, struck up a relationship over the phone, but it wasn’t long before they found her in person, too. The Grammy winner and the UK native met in 2009 while Shepherd was working for Paul McCartney, coordinating his charity work. Carlile and his future wife spoke (…)
She continued, “And I think the people who put together the entertainment part of the Super Bowl this year just did a great job. It’s really good. Bad Bunny is amazing, an amazing spirit and performer. It’s going to be a fabulous halftime show.”
The award-winning singer also talked about how important it was for her to perform a song she wrote Katharine Lee Bateswho is believed to be gay.
“You know, I feel called to a long line of contemplative, fighting people. I feel motivated by the fact that I was probably gay, and a woman who relied on her intellect at a time when it was hard for women to do that, and who was living with a partner who was doing the same,” she explained. “And still choosing, even in this total oppression; not even being able to get married; not even being able to say I was gay, or be raised to the heights that I probably deserved to be raised in politics, and, during those times, to still love America and still believe that I could reach a place of goodness.”
She added: “I’m not going to say greatness, because it feels a little, you know, patriarchal. But kindness. And I believe the same thing. And I have some of the struggle ahead of me and behind me that he faced back in the day. So, you know, that’s an interesting song. And it’s an interesting decision that I’m making. I definitely don’t want to be somebody that I don’t freely want to be. Ignoring the problems that we have in this country, I want to be seen as one of the people that is helper