Super Bowl LX occurred last Sunday, February 8th, and while the Bad Bunny halftime show caused a bit of division online, one thing was clear; Charlie Puth’s rendition of the National Anthem was widely recognized as one of the greatest performances of the Anthem at a Super Bowl ever. Charlie Puth is a 34-year-old singer, songwriter, producer, and musician. He is famous for having perfect pitch, a trait which influences every aspect of his music and media personality. Like many people, I passively listened to Charlie Puth when I’d hear his songs playing out, but I never really purposefully sought out his music. Last year I started to follow him on Instagram to see his “Professor Puth” reels, in which he’d explain and demonstrate facts and music phenomena. However, since seeing his rendition of the National Anthem at SBLX, I have become acutely obsessed with his rendition and newest singles from his upcoming album, Whatever’s Clever!, which is set to release on March 27th. Puth came to sing the Anthem after recording and producing a demo of himself performing the song, and sent it to Roc Nation, the entertainment company responsible for Super Bowl performances. After making its way through Jay-Z and the NFL authorities, Puth was selected as SBLX’s National Anthem Performer. After “reverse-engineering” the song in his head for months leading up to the big game, what viewers were left with was a modern classic that fused gospel, 80s style, and RnB together, creating a powerful earworm wiggling around in my head for a week. He opens with his keyboard and lone vocals. Puth stylistically adds a riff on “light”, right when the choir begins to creep in. At “gleaming”, we hear Kenny G, yes, the real Kenny G, come in on his signature saxophone. The choir softly supports Charlie’s vocals and keys, and as each line goes by, the choir starts to build at the start of the phrase. Upon “the rocket’s red glare”, Charlie belts out the words, and the choir has powerful layered backing vocals. Puth adds a riff to “air” with the music fully built behind him. He sings “gave proof through the night” softer and its only for a moment that the tone feels wistful and slow when at “night” Charlie adds a sweeping and swirling riff that builds back up with the choir and full band at “our flag was still there.” The drums are commanding but perfectly supporting Charlie’s punctuation of “oh say does that…” He brings it down for a softer “wave” and climbs up to the highest note on “land of the free.” Charlie closes it out with a powerful “and the home of the brave”, supported by the choir at full blast, chanting behind him, and the band perfectly supporting the moment. Charlie’s sustained “brave” is emotionally satisfying, and the performance as a whole manages to rustle up some Patriotism in all of us. What a dynamic performance. Not to mention the absolutely cinematic camera work pulled on “Brave” with the U.S. Air Force flyover hitting their mark. Truly powerful. Charlie posted on X after the performance saying, “Thank you everyone for your kind words. It was an honor to sing The National Anthem. I wrote the arrangement in a very specific way to honor Whitney Houston- I hope that was heard. Thank you to the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, the Sainted Choir, the Color of Noize Orchestra, Steve Hackman, and Kenny G for joining me on stage. And thank you Adam Blackstone for writing such a beautiful choir part. I love music so much.” Inspired by his performance of the National Anthem, I spent the past week listening to his three released singles from Whatever’s Clever! “Changes”, “Beat Yourself Up”, and “Cry” ft. Kenny G, are all insanely musical—reminiscent of music of the past while bringing a unique modern flair. In “Cry,” the drums and variety of orchestral instruments elicit an 80s sound, almost resembling a Phil Collins/ Peter Gabriel-type sound. The thing I appreciate the most out of this new era of Charlie is that he is bringing back a full instrument section to the industry. One thing music is sorely lacking today is a variety of backing instruments— specifically the saxophone. Puth understands perfectly well the fulfilling sound a saxophone brings to a song. This is because the saxophone (as well as a trumpet) resembles the human voice—a phenomenon he discussed in one of his “Professor Puth” reels. Kenny G comes in to serve that purpose. Overall, Charlie Puth has certainly made a name for himself, giving a performance worthy of being one of the top three Super Bowl National Anthem performances ever—alongside Whitney Houston (1991) and Chris Stapleton (2023).