While it has become a source of controversy at sporting events over the last few years, singing the national anthem, derived from the work of Francis Scott Key, remains one of America’s most favored and timeless traditions.
Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Miley Cyrus, and Demi Lovato will march with gun-control demonstrators at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., according to David Hogg, the Florida shooting survivor who has been one of the most vocal gun-control activists.
All four major broadcast networks – CBS, ABC, FOX, and NBC – halted their regularly scheduled programming for an hour Friday night to air a star-studded telecast funded by a social justice organization urging its viewers to “rethink the American high school.”
Singers Beyoncé and Pink, comedians Chris Rock and Kevin Hart and actresses Queen Latifah and Rosario Dawson, in collaboration with Alicia Keys and her social justice nonprofit We Are Here, all came together to produce a three-minute PSA entitled, “23 Ways You Could Be Killed If You Are Black In America.”
A star-studded concert is preceding Pope Francis’ celebration of Mass on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The program, called “A Journey of Faith,” features Gloria Estefan, who will sing “Mas Alla (Beyond),” a Spanish spiritual ballad that she recorded in 1995, and which she also sang for Pope John Paul II.
Performing our country’s National Anthem on a giant stage is no easy feat.
