Charlie Puth gets real about Super Bowl anthem role

Charlie Puth has revealed that he landed his Super Bowl national anthem performance by auditioning for the gig himself—not because of a direct offer.

The singer got candid about the opportunity in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, where he detailed his efforts that went into landing the offer to perform at Super Bowl LX.

Puth said he recorded a stripped-down demo of himself singing The Star-Spangled Banner, accompanied by a Rhodes keyboard. 

"I actually have always wanted to do this, and I recorded a little demo, just me singing with the Rhodes, and sent it to Roc Nation. I’ve been told Jay-Z loved it, and it got to [NFL Commissioner Roger] Goodell, and they all said that I could do it," he told the outlet.

The singer admitted the process was intentional and even personal. "I applied. I auditioned for it, but I made up my own audition. I’ve always wanted to do it because I love it musically. It’s the best song. Musically, it’s so special."

Puth also mentioned the legacy of the performance, especially Whitney Houston’s 1991 version, saying it adds pressure but also meaning.

He said that while Houston’s performance is unmatched, he hopes to give a version that feels true to himself.

It’s a great honour," Puth said. "I’m going to be inspired by what Whitney did, but I can’t ever touch what she did. That’s the best one ever done. That and the Chris Stapleton one. That was raw. Made grown men cry." 

"I just want to do my own thing with the hardest piece of music ever written. And I just wanna show people that I can do it. I feel like people don’t really think of me as, like, a stand-alone vocalist at times."

Puth was announced as a Super Bowl performer in December, and he posted a humourous Instagram video to mark the announcement, explaining the song’s difficulty using football metaphors.

“Did you know that one of the most beautiful pieces of music also happens to be the hardest to sing?" he said in a November 30 video, where he assumed the role of a coach in a locker room full of football players.

"Ah, yes, The Star-Spangled Banner is a piece of music that has extreme vocal range," he said in the video. "Most hard-to-sing songs span just one octave range, like a low D to a high D, but The Star-Spangled Banner, it goes from a low D to a high D, plus five more notes, all the way up to a very high A."

Following the announcement, Puth faced criticism over his vocals. He responded directly, saying he does not compare himself to Houston but is confident the performance will reveal his strongest vocals to date.