Why Does H.E.R. Always Wear Sunglasses?

her sunglasses why

Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy H.E.R. performs onstage during the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards.

Singer H.E.R. is scheduled to sing America the Beautiful at Super Bowl 55. Whether you’re a fan already, or just learning about this performer for the first time, there’s one question you might have right now: “Why does H.E.R. always wear sunglasses?” If you’ve noticed that this performer is rarely without her shades, you’re not alone. Here’s what we know about why H.E.R. tends to appear on-stage in sunglasses, even indoors.


H.E.R. Wears Sunglasses as Part of Her Mystique

her sunglasses always

Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording AcademyH.E.R. attends the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards.

According to the Sun, “H.E.R used to be entirely anonymous, but in recent years, she has shown her face but obscured her eyes with sunglasses.”

In an interview with High Snobiety. H.E.R. was asked about why she always wears sunglasses, and the artist stated she’s previously purchased shades from Gucci, Ray-Ban, and Nordstrom Rack. Essence notes that H.E.R.’s signature look is often big curls, paired with big glasses.

The artist also designed her own line of sunglasses with DIFF eyewear. In an interview with Billboard, H.E.R. stated that she feels “mysterious” when wearing shades.


‘America the Beautiful’ Was Written by a Woman

her sunglasses

Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BETH.E.R. performs onstage during the 51st NAACP Image Awards.

NPR notes that the words of America the Beautiful were written by “a witty feminist poet and Wellesley professor named Katharine Lee Bates”.

Years later, the words of her poem were eventually, formally set to music. According to the Library of Congress, the music paired with the words of the poem took some time to be finalized into their current form:

“For several years ‘America the Beautiful’ was sung to almost any popular air or folk tune with which the lyrics fit: ‘Auld Lang Syne’ was one of the most common. Today it is sung to a melody written in 1882 by Samuel Augustus Ward, a Newark, New Jersey, church organist and choirmaster. …When the National Federation of Music Clubs sponsored a 1926 contest to elicit new music for Bates’ poem but failed to find a winner, Ward’s music prevailed.


H.E.R. Isn’t the Only Super Bowl Performer Who Loves Shades

Eric Church sings Through My Ray-Bans in the video above, notably while wearing regular glasses during an in-studio session.

Super Bowl performer Eric Church, who will sing the National Anthem alongside Jazmine Sullivan, is another performer who is known for almost always appearing in sunglasses. In Church’s case, the reason is personal comfort. Church wears contacts, and found that wearing shades helped prevent dry eyes under hot stage lights.

Not everyone is a fan of Church’s signature sunglasses. In 2018, Kacey Musgraves put Church on blast when she mentioned his penchant for wearing sunglasses in an interview with Billboard.

When asked by the publication about the “low bar” for male country artists to be seen as rebellious, compared to female peers, Musgraves stated:

“There’s so much extra pressure on females in the music industry to be accommodating and nice, and it’s such horses***. They would never say that to Stapleton, or Eric Church, who wears his f**king sunglasses all the time. If I wore my sunglasses all the time, people would be like, ‘She thinks she is hot s***.’”

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