Right-wing critics and MAGA supporters were angered by the Super Bowl's Black national anthem.
Why It Matters In the NAACP's 'Lift Every Voice and Sing,' the Black national anthem plays.
Last year's anthem performance outraged MAGA fans, including Matt Gaetz and Kari Lake. Backlash has returned this year.
What To Know The Louisiana-born singer Ledisi performed the song at this year's Super Bowl in New Orleans, drawing criticism from right-wing journalists and MAGA, including Charlie Kirk and End Wokeness.
Social media fans liked the performance and were confused by the response. One person asked, "Are people really getting mad about Ledisi singing "Lift Every Voice and Sing," at the Super Bowl tonight?" Another called Ledisi's performance "absolutely beautiful!!"
NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson wrote the hymn as a poem in the late 1800s. In 1919, his brother John Rosamond Johnson arranged it and made it the NAACP's official song.
Following protests against police violence after George Floyd's murder, the NFL added the Black national anthem to pre-game festivities in 2020.
The performance was held this year in front of President Donald Trump after he ordered federal agencies to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, which advocacy groups called discriminatory.