H.E.R.’s Super Bowl ‘America the Beautiful’ Performance Includes a Ripping Guitar Solo
Super Bowl LV featured a virtuoso guitar solo on Sunday (Feb. 7) when R&B artist H.E.R. shredded an inspired run on her Fender Stratocaster during a patriotic performance of "America the Beautiful."
The guitar-based ear candy came ahead of country star Eric Church's unorthodox national anthem alongside singer Jazmine Sullivan to kick off the big game between the champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs. To boot, H.E.R.'s wicked "America the Beautiful" guitar solo was perhaps one of the only rock-based flourishes during the primetime NFL broadcast — the Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show was handled by pop sensation The Weeknd.
Watch the video down toward the bottom of this post.
Despite the dearth of live rock and metal involved in the Super Bowl itself, metalheads still got their fill during a post-game presentation. Indeed, Metallica rocked their first performance of 2021 as they closed out a special Super Bowl edition of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Headbangers also got a blast from the past with a Wayne's World redux featuring original stars Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, the pair updating their '90s SNL shtick in an ad with rapper Cardi B.
H.E.R.'s "America the Beautiful" starts off subdued, the mainstay penned by lyricist Katharine Lee Bates organist Samuel A. Ward blossoming in hushed vocals and jazzy guitar chords from the performer whose real name is Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson. (Her stage acronym stands for "Having Everything Revealed.") About midway through the rendition, H.E.R. lets loose with the instrumental solo that takes the song's unmistakable melody and amps it up in glorious swaths of distorted guitar.
Outside of her Super Bowl guitar solo, H.E.R.'s known for her contemporary R&B ballads, and the singer has two studio albums under her belt already — 2017's H.E.R. and 2019's I Used to Know Her.
H.E.R. Sings "America the Beautiful" at Super Bowl LV