Bringing down the house. Jhené Aiko helped kick off Super Bowl LVI with a stunning performance of “America the Beautiful.”
The “Bed Peace” songstress, 33, belted out the patriotic tune with accompaniment from harpist Gracie Sprout, who is based in Los Angeles.
When the Grammy nominee announced her Super Bowl appearance earlier in February, she pointed out that she has a personal connection to both of the cities represented in the game. “My Daddy’s from Cincinnati … Mom is from L.A.,” she wrote via Instagram. “SEE YOU THERE!”
The “Born Tired” singer was in the crowd last month when the Los Angeles Rams won the NFC championship game against the San Francisco 49ers. She and her boyfriend, Big Sean, made headlines when they were misidentified as Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. on the Jumbotron during the event.
“@bigsean do you get mistaken for me as often as I get mistaken for you?” the Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum, 44, wrote via Instagram alongside a screenshot of the error. The Cruel Intentions actress also pointed out that her husband, 45, wasn’t even at the game with her — she attended with her friend Elsa Collins.
Aiko isn’t scheduled to perform during the halftime show, but she previously collaborated with one of its stars, Kendrick Lamar, on the track “Stay Ready (What a Life)” from her 2013 EP, Sail Out, and “Growing Apart (To Get Closer)” from his 2010 mixtape, Overly Dedicated. The “Humble” rapper, 34, is headlining the show alongside Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Mary J. Blige.
When Aiko and the Pulitzer Prize winner collaborated the first time, she had never heard of him, but the pair clicked immediately. “It was so easy, so organic,” she told HipHopDX in November 2012. “At one point, he had accidentally picked up my phone and saw my notes because we were writing to the same song. He was like, ‘Your notes look like my notes. That’s crazy!’ He was confused. It looked familiar to him.”
Last year, the “None of Your Concern” songstress named another halftime show performer as one of her top five rappers of all time: Eminem.
“He is really one of the people who inspired me to really care about my words when I am writing,” Aiko said of the “Lose Yourself” artist, 49, in a 2018 interview with WWD. “When I was younger, me and my brother [Miyagi] shared a huge love for Eminem, just reading his lyrics. He would put them in a pamphlet and they read almost like inappropriate Dr. Seuss poems. Watching him perform was an unreal feeling for me, because my brother passed away back in 2012. … So, every time I see Eminem, it reminds me of my brother.”
