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I love how obsessed we are, as a society, with Sheryl Lee Ralph. She’s been around forever, but Abbott Elementary has suddenly made her a household name in her 60s. What’s great is that she’s being invited everywhere and she’s saying yes to all of those invitations. For the first time ever, the NFL wanted the Black National Anthem performed at the Super Bowl, and they invited Ralph to sing it. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is a 123-year-old song beloved by the Black community, and Ralph did a beautiful rendition of it. Of course, people are complaining that this song made the Super Bowl “woke.” Imagine being that stupid and racist.

There were people complaining that Sheryl lip-synced? To which I say… at this point, everyone’s lip-syncing. Rihanna lip-synced too, call the cops. When approached for comment about the alleged lip-syncing, Sheryl Lee told THR: “Does it matter? Does it matter? No. Thank you.”

I missed this last night, but Babyface was invited to sing “America the Beautiful” – a nice rendition, I think.

Here’s Chris Stapleton’s performance of the National Anthem. I thought it was good/fine, honestly. I prefer female singers doing the anthem, but Stapleton’s countrified version was acceptable, and clearly a lot of the football dudes loved it. Loved that Oscar-winner Troy Kotsur was invited to sign the anthem too!!

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Photos courtesy of Getty.