A Super Bowl of Fun Facts
The big game has had a lot of unique moments.
Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. Today’s post is in the perfect key.
Alicia Keys has the longest National Anthem performance at the Super Bowl, clocking in at 2 minutes and 35 seconds.
Super Bowl LIX, the favorite of lollipop enthusiasts everywhere, will kick off this Sunday in New Orleans.
That puts New Orleans in a tie with Miami for the city that’s hosted the most Super Bowls—they’ve each welcomed 11 of the events.
Hopefully, the game is a higher-scoring affair than 2019, when the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams played in a 13-3 game that was more disappointing than dropping an ice cream cone on the ground. The 16 points are the lowest-scoring total in Super Bowl history.
For some reason, should you ever need to know who scored the first touchdown in a Super Bowl, it was Max McGee, who caught a 37-yard touchdown pass with one hand for the Green Bay Packers.
I’m curious to see how long this year’s singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” will be. In 2013, Alicia Keys gave us a terrific performance of the song, which featured her playing piano and clocked in at 2 minutes and 35 seconds. It’s the longest in all 58 Super Bowl games.
That’s also longer than a ton of hits from over the years, like “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tommy James and the Shondells and “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X. That’s also probably the only time those two have been mentioned in the same sentence.
If long national anthems aren’t your thing, perhaps you’d enjoy Neil Diamond’s rendition at a cool 62 seconds. That’s less time than it takes people to get in key while singing “Sweet Caroline!”
Jon Batiste is singing this year. I don’t have a prediction of how long his version will be, but I did visit Fort McHenry in Baltimore a few months ago. That’s where Francis Scott Key was looking when he wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.” What a cool sight!
