Charlie Puth’s National Anthem Performance Was a Tribute to Whitney Houston: ‘I Wrote the Arrangement in a Very Specific Way’

Performing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl is a daunting prospect at best. Between nerves about singing the legendarily tricky tune, the intimidation factor of knowing that there are tens of thousands of people in the stadium and more than 100 million others tuning in and trying to live up to Whitney Houston’s unbeatable 1991 version of the Anthem at Super Bowl XXV, it’s a potential fools errand at best.

Charlie Puth kept all of that in mind going into Sunday’s (Feb. 8) Super Bowl in Santa Clara, Calif. and, as it turns out, he actually went out of his way to pay homage to Houston instead of running away from that gold standard. “Thank you everyone for your kind words. It was an honor to sing The National Anthem. I wrote the arrangement in a very specific way to honor Whitney Houston– I hope that was heard,” wrote Puth of his musical nod to Houston’s all-time rendition.

Puth’s performance had a lite gospel feel to it and found him accompanied by a choir and orchestra as he played along on a Rhodes keyboard. He had kind words for the musicians as well, adding, “Thank you to the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, the Sainted Choir, the Color of Noize Orchestra, Steve Hackman, and Kenny G for joining me on stage. And thank you Adam Blackstone for writing such a beautiful choir part. I love music so much.”

Dressed in a brown leather bomber jacket over a white shirt and tie with jeans, Puth crooned the Anthem in a crystal-clear falsetto over the traditional close-up shots of the stars from the two teams — the victorious Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots — getting their game faces on, with the performance ending on a soaring high note during a thrilling stealth bomber fly-over.