Getty A celebratory photo taken at the 2020 Super Bowl.
Super Bowl 55 is finally here, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Kansas City Chiefs will take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and The Weeknd will take the field as this year’s headlining performer. But, what about before the game?
Read on below for the pregame details.
SUPER BOWL 2021 PREGAME SHOW TIME: Kickoff for the Super Bowl starts at 6:30 p.m. ET and the pregame show airs for a half hour from 6 – 6:30 p.m. ET. In this time, The National Anthem and America the Beautiful will be performed.
SUPER BOWL 2021 PREGAME SHOW CHANNEL: The official Super Bowl pre-show will air on the CBS network, along with the actual Super Bowl game.
SUPER BOWL 2021 PRE-SHOW PERFORMERS: Country artist Eric Church will be partnering with singer Jazmine Sullivan to perform The National Anthem, while H.E.R. will sing America the Beautiful. According to Today, Church said the Capitol riots are what swayed him to take on the performance.
Church explained to the LA Times, “With what’s going on in America, it feels like an important time for a patriotic moment. An important time for unity. The fact that I’m a Caucasian country singer and she’s an African American R&B singer — I think the country needs that.”
Ahead of his Star-Spangled Banner performance, Church also told the LA Times about what he wanted from the gig, “I know I want to play guitar. And we’re keeping it based around the melody. Basically, if I can stay out of her way, we’re golden.” In an interview with the Tennessean, Church also spoke about his upcoming National Anthem performance and said, “It’s a 10 degree of difficulty off the high dive. It’s tough. But I’m excited to go do it.”
The performances during the kickoff show will be signed by deaf rapper Warren “Wawa” Snipe.
Poet Amanda Gorman will recite a piece of her work during the pre-show as well. Gorman first made major headlines when she delivered a piece at Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration. In an interview with Michelle Obama for TIME, Gorman revealed she has a little speech she says to herself before she recites her poetry. She admitted, “I really wanted something that I could repeat because I get so terrified whenever I perform. So my mantra is: ‘I’m the daughter of Black writers who are descended from Freedom Fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me.’ I say that to remind myself of ancestors that are all around me whenever I’m performing.”
The game-related occurrences during the pregame show include the coin toss and introductions of the participating teams.
ADDITIONAL PREGAME PROGRAMMING: Additional programming taking place before the big game includes The Super Bowl Today, which also airs on CBS. It runs from 2 – 6 p.m. ET. Charles Davis, James Brown, Boomer Esiason, Bill Cowher, Phil Simms, Ian Eagle, and Nate Burleson will deliver commentary ahead of the game, along with a preview of what’s to come for the Super Bowl game.
There will also be an NFL TikTok Tailgate and Miley Cyrus is set to perform, according to Yahoo. Variety has reported that Steve Harvey and MJ Acosta will host the event. Other celebrities involved in the show include but are not limited to Rebel Wilson and Kane Brown.
Variety has also reported that the NFL TikTok Tailgate will air live on the NFL TikTok account, starting at 2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT.
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