Grammy-winning R&B star Coco Jones will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at the 2026 Super Bowl, continuing the NFL’s tradition of honoring the Black national anthem—a 126-year-old hymn of resilience. Here’s why this moment matters.
When Coco Jones steps onto the field before the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots clash in Super Bowl LX, she will perform a song that has, for 126 years, served as both a spiritual hymn and a cultural rallying cry. The selection of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as the opening anthem for the second consecutive year underscores its evolving role—not just as a moment of reflection, but as a declaration of the intersection between sports, art, and Black identity.
Written in 1899 by James Weldon Johnson, a civil rights leader, poet, and lawyer, the piece began as a school recitation to celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Johnson and his brother, composer John Rosamond Johnson, later transformed it into music. Dubbed the Black national anthem, it became a centerpiece of the Civil Rights Movement, a testament to endurance during the Jim Crow era, and a repeated syntonic foil to the broader American identity.
The Song’s Journey from Schoolrooms to Stadiums
“At the turn of the 20th century, Johnson’s lyrics eloquently captured the solemn yet hopeful appeal for the liberty of Black Americans,” explains the NAACP, where Johnson served as a leader. “Set against the religious invocation of God and the promise of freedom, the song was later adopted by NAACP and prominently used as a rallying cry during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.”
Its Super Bowl debut came in 2020, played before all 16 Week 1 games as the NFL amplified player-led social justice initiatives. Since then, each performance has been met with both reverence and controversy. In 2023, Rep. Lauren Boebert questioned its inclusion, tweeting, “America only has ONE NATIONAL ANTHEM. Why is the NFL trying to divide us?”
Yet the timeline is crucial: “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was composed in 1900—31 years before Congress codified “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Johnson himself labeled it a “National Hymn,” not a challenge to a broader flag anthem, but as a celebration within the Black American experience.
“In Jim Crow America,” Rufus Jones, president of the James Weldon Johnson Foundation, tells CBS News, “Black folk found their own sources of inspiration.”
2026 Performance: Coco Jones, Fred Beam, and a Year of Continuity
Jones, a 2024 Grammy winner for Best R&B Performance, will be joined by Fred Beam, a renowned deaf music artist. The collaboration marks a duality of sound and sign, reinforcing the song’s message of unity and liberation across multiple languages of expression.
“We’re bringing the energy to Super Bowl 60,” Jones said in a December announcement video. She joins recent performers: Ledisi (2025) with 125 New Orleans youth singers; Andra Day (2024); and Sheryl Lee Ralph (2023), who noted on social media that her performance aligned with the song’s 123rd anniversary on February 12.
The NFL’s Jon Barker, senior vice president of global event production, emphasized the performers’ role: “These artists bring a distinct voice to the moment, helping set the tone for a day that will captivate fans around the world.”
An Anthem Beyond Sports
“Lift Every Voice and Sing” remains a visceral piece of American music. In 2021, Rep. James Clyburn filed a bill seeking to honor it as the national hymn—a symbolic move to codify its cultural importance beyond ceremonial performances.
Its full lyrics, embedded in every Super Bowl program since 2020, are reprinted as poetic verses of hope and perseverance—lines like, “Stony the road we trod, / Bitter the chastening rod,” resonate across generations.
The song’s NFL journey reflects a broader social arc: from the player-led kneeling protests to the league’s own reckoning with racial equity. As the stanzas conclude, “True to our God, / True to our native land,” the performance at Super Bowl LX becomes more than pre-game entertainment—it’s a live reaffirmation of American identity, in all its pluralistic texture.
The 2026 Super Bowl kicks off Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBC from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, where Coco Jones and Fred Beam will lead millions in a song that has outlived decades—and their performance will etch another verse in this enduring hymn’s story.
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