Sure, quarterback Joe Burrow and LSU destroyed Clemson in Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship. But it was Lauren Daigle’s National Anthem that scored the first touchdown of the night… before Burrow accounted for six more.
Daigle, Billboard’s Top Christian Artist of 2019, achieved major cross-over status last year, and she topped it off by absolutely crushing the notoriously hard-to-sing “Star-Spangled Banner.”
The Grammy-award-winning “Say” singer and Louisiana native posted a video of her big night on Tuesday, giving a sneak peek at her unbridled joy at taking center stage at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. “I feel like these are the kind of days that you spend your entire career to amount to,” a grinning Daigle says from the back of a car as her motorcade speeds toward the stadium before kick-off.
With horns blaring in the background and Daigle hanging out the window of an SUV yelling “go Tigers!” as she roots for the home team (that’s LSU, for you non-football folks), we see her literally skipping through the bowels of the bowl, giddily taking pics of a pic of the LSU mascot and watching record-smashing QB Burrow and the rest of the team make their way to the locker room. Along the way, she also flashes her yellow and blue LSU nail art and does some vocal warm-ups in the bathroom.
Calling the whole experience “sheer joy,” on Instagram Daigle wrote, “and I can’t stop watching it. I grew up on @lsufootball. We had season tickets since before I was born. My grandparents worked there for over 30 years. I attended my first LSU game in Death Valley at 4 years old. I remember the goosebumps that stadium sent through my body. Never would I have imagined 24 years later that I would be singing the National Anthem at such a monumental game in front of our @lsu Tigers. And that was just the beginning. As an LSU Alumni, I could not be more PROUD of the outcome of that game.”
The video also gave a peek at Daigle’s final prep and the long walk to the mid-field stage — during which she admits to being super nervous — with the whole wild trip ending with a super-soulful run through the Anthem to the wild cheers of the capacity crowd. Oh, and she had sweet seats for the game and got to do a victory dance on the confetti-covered field afterwards, so, epic night overall.
Check out the home video below.
