The Star Spangled Banner (Whitney Houston Song) - Other Live Performances

Other Live Performances

Before her famous rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV in 1991, Whitney Houston sang the national anthem several times in sports events, such as Los Angeles Lakers vs. New Jersey Nets game on December 14, 1988 and game 3 of the 1989-90 NBA playoffs conference finals of Chicago Bulls vs. Detroit Pistons which was played on May 26, 1990. Two months after the Super Bowl performance of the song, Houston opened Welcome Home Heroes with Whitney Houston, her first-ever full-length TV concert, with "The Star Spangled Banner" at Norfolk Naval Air Station in Virginia for a crowd of about 3,200 including Desert Storm troops and their families on March 31, 1991. Houston, in an interview with The Associated Press before the concert, said that her Super Bowl performance sparked a sense of patriotism in her and made her to carry the song over into a concert. The concert was broadcast live nationally on HBO and simulcast on various US radio stations. Liz Smith of Newsday, after the controversy about Houston's lip-syncing at Super Bowl XXV, wrote that "anyone out there who still doubts Whitney's ability to vocally conquer 'The Star Spangled Banner' without technical help should tune in to HBO," praising Houston's Super Bowl performance highly as mentioned above. The performance was included in Laserdisc of the same title only, released in the United States in October 1991. (the performance was not in even LD releases of the concert in foreign countries such Germany and Japan, as well as all of VHS and DVD releases since 1991.) Houston also gave a live performance of the national anthem at the inaugural All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York on July 14, 1999. George Willis of New York Post said that the performance was "nearly as stirring as when she sang before Super Bowl XXV in Tampa."