The NFL announced that Demi Lovato would be the national anthem singer at Super Bowl LIV, and you know what that means.
It’s time to figure out how you’re going to bet on one of my favorite Super Bowl props: the over/under on the length of the performance.
Unlike in years past with certain performers, we have some extensive history when it comes to Lovato performing the anthem — she did it in 2008 for a Cowboys-Seahawks game, in 2011 before Game 5 of the World Series, in 2015 before Game 4 of the Fall Classic and for the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight in 2017.
Let’s look at all four and see if we can figure out any clues as to how long it will take her (and remember: the length is defined as when she starts and stops singing):
2008: 1 minute, 53 seconds
2011: 1 minute, 49 seconds
2015: 1 minute, 58 seconds
2017: 2 minutes, 11 seconds
The first thing I noticed: Lovato likes to do the anthem a cappella, with no accompaniment. Will she do the same with a band? If so, I wonder if that will shorten the length given her tendency to take big pauses between some phrases.
But if it’s business as usual and she does it without any background music, Lovato’s average here is about one minute and 57 seconds, and I’d point out that her last two anthems have were her longest. And in 2018 Covers.com figured out the average rendition in the past 27 years was 115.4 seconds, or one minute and 55 seconds.
I’m going to be bold and say that if the over/under is two minutes, between nerves and history, I’ll take the over. But keep an eye out for any news about whether Lovato will have any backing music/musicians or not.
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