Andra Day wows crowd with Black national anthem at Super Bowl 2024

Andra Day has officially taken the field at the 2024 Super Bowl on Sunday.

The “Rise Up” singer, 39, performed the Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas before the big game kicked off.

She rocked a plethora of gold jewelry for her performance and a gray pantsuit.

“More than anything, it’s an honor, you know, it’s exciting,” Day expressed during a pre-game Apple Music press conference. 

“And it feels intentional. I like to do things with intention and with purpose,” she added.

Actor Shaheem Sanchez carried out Day’s performance in American Sign Language.

“It’s a hymn of triumph, and that’s what I want people to encounter when I sing this song. I want them to know that we have victory and we have peace already… It feels like there’s an honor,” she went on.

Day joked that she wanted to have an “out of body experience while performing” the song for the masses.

The song “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was penned by former NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson as a poem in 1900. It’s known as the Black national anthem and was used during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, according to the NAACP website.

Day’s set was produced and arranged by Emmy Award-winning music director Adam Blackstone.

“Lift Every Voice Up and Sing” has been the subject of some controversy over the years.

Kari Lake, a former news anchor and the Republican Party nominee in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election, refused to stand for the song when it was sung in 2023 at another NFL game.

Embattled media personality Megyn Kelly also slammed the single when it was performed at the U.S. Open last year.

“No national anthem at the #USOpen – just a mixture of America the Beautiful & Lift Every Voice & Sing. This, as everywhere we are barraged with “50 years of equal pay!” reminders and Moderna signs. Can we just have a non-woke, non-agenda pushing men’s tennis championship?” she angrily tweeted at the time.

Reba McEntire was on hand to sing the national anthem while rapper Post Malone performed “America the Beautiful” on Sunday.

The Kansas City Chiefs are set to face off against the San Francisco 49ers at the football event.

Usher will also take the main stage as this year’s halftime show performer, singing and dancing to a medley of his iconic hits.

“You know, this has been an amazing year ramping up to this,” Usher exclusively told The Post of his “My Way” Las Vegas residency that finished at the Dolby Live-Park MGM in December after 17 months and 100 shows.

“It definitely helped to play 100 sold-out shows, in preparation for the Super Bowl,” he added. “Now, obviously, a much bigger audience. And the 200 million people that will be watching probably adds a bit of pressure, but . . . I’m ready, man. I’m now just in preparation to enjoy it.”

“Usher is an icon whose music has left an indelible mark on the cultural landscape throughout his career, we couldn’t be more excited to have him headline this year’s Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show,” Seth Dudowsky, the head of music for the NFL, also noted in a memo.

“We look forward to working with Usher, Roc Nation and Apple Music to bring fans another Halftime Show for the history books.”

As for Day, she is a Grammy-nominated singer, having scored nods in 2016 for her tune “Rise Up” and her debut album “Cheers to the Fall.”

In 2022, she won the award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media for the soundtrack to her hit film “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.”

For the biopic based on jazz singer Billie Holiday’s life, Day won the Golden Globe for best actress in a drama and was nominated for an Oscar in 2021.