(VIDEO)How Whitney Houston’s iconic Super Bowl national anthem became the gold standard

(VIDEO)How Whitney Houston’s iconic Super Bowl national anthem became the gold standard

“The Star-Spangled Banner” is known to be one of the most challenging songs for a performer to belt, which is ironic since it was written for every United States citizen to sing. Its wide range has often provided some of the more amusing performances to ever grace a basketball court or football field, from Fergie’s to Roseanne’s. Still to this day, the national anthem, written by Francis Scott Key and John Stafford Smith, can be a tough one for even the most trained star to do right by.

But then there was Whitney Houston.

In 1991, the then 27-year-old vocalist set the gold standard with her rendition at Super Bowl 25 on Jan. 27. She was at the height of her music career, having released three successful studio albums in the five years prior to stepping onto the football field. The country had just entered the Persian Gulf War and there was a sense of deep patriotism in the air when she performed, something that her rendition upheld to the tenth degree.

“If you were there, you could feel the intensity,” Houston, who died in 2012, said during an interview for the accompanying DVD for her greatest hits album back in 2000. “We were in the Gulf War at the time. It was an intense time for our country. A lot of our daughters and sons were overseas fighting. I could see in the stadium, I could see the fear, the hope, the intensity, the prayers going up.”

One of the ways that Minor fought this backlash was coordinating for Houston to open her HBO concert “Welcome Home Heroes” with an a cappella version of the national anthem two weeks later, to prove to the naysayers and critics that she could do what she did at the Super Bowl live.

Another facet that made Houston’s performance stand out was the fact that she dressed down for the performance.

“Whitney’s thing was, she was there to cheer on the New York Giants,” Minor said of her decision to wear the white tracksuit and headband. “She was there for that and after she performed she wanted to be comfortable to go and sit in her box and relax and watch the game. So it’s like not putting on the makeup and the gowns and stuff… it was really, I’m at a football game. I’m not at the Met.”

What followed her Super Bowl performance was a massive outpouring of love that continued to mount. So much so that three days later, Arista Records, Houston’s label at the time, announced the track would be available for purchase on cassette and VHS with proceeds to be donated to a charity related to the war effort.

Watch the performance below

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