Alicia Keys 2013 Super Bowl National Anthem Video, Time, and Review

Alicia Keys just sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” at Super Bowl XLVII. She sang the lyrics (not counting the extra “living in the home of the brave” see added) in about 2 minutes 23 seconds.

Alicia Keys posted this picture of her with Jennifer Hudson earlier today after the two rehearsed America the Beautiful and the Star-Spangled Banner, respectively, before the start of the 2013 Super Bowl.

Alicia Keys 2013 Super Bowl National Anthem Video

Here’s Alicia Keys’s performance of the National Anthem from earlier this evening:

For the most part, I think Alicia Keys did a nice job. I always appreciate when the singer also provides the instrumental accompaniment, and though that Keys’s piano part complemented the song well.

She dragged a bit, as evidenced by the fact that she beat the over-under time by 8–11 seconds, but her vocals weren’t obnoxious, at least not until the vocal flourish after “brave” and the “livin’ in the home of the brave” she tacked onto the end, both of which were unnecessary.

Keys was flat on “free,” which is a hard not for anyone to hit; and she fumbled a little on “brave.” But it was mostly a clean take.

How did Keys’s version of the “Star-Spangled Banner” compare to the other great renditions from Super Bowl history?

Alicia Keys 2013 Super Bowl National Anthem Time

I clocked Keys’s national anthem at 2 minutes 23 seconds; I saw another unofficial time of 2 minutes 26 seconds on Twitter. SB Nation Philly got 2:35, but I’m guessing they’re counting Keys’s extra-curricular activity at the end of the song. As I understand it, time stops as soon as she finishes “brave”—the first “brave” in this case.

At any rate, there is no question that she exceeded the over-under of 2 minutes 15 seconds, as set by Bovada.

Last year Kelly Clarkson’s rendition ran 1:35. Even Whitney Houston’s famous 1991 performance came in under 2:15, around the two-minute mark and significantly shorter than Keys’s version.

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