Ashanti's Stunning National Anthem Performance at the World Series

Source: Mary DeCicco / Getty

Okay, Ashanti! Let’s just say that on Tuesday night, the 44-year-old Grammy winner stepped up to the mic before Game 4 of the World Series, ready to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner”—and she nailed it. The crowd, already high from the energy of a World Series game, was stunned as Ashanti belted out the anthem, hitting all the right notes and drawing cheers at more than one point in the performance.

Given the national anthem’s reputation for being a make-or-break moment (we still remember you, Fergie!), Ashanti’s flawless rendition felt like a victory before the game even started. Let’s just say we’re all still reeling from Fergie’s jazzy attempt in 2018. It was…memorable. Fergie kicked things off with a sultry drum beat and a serious face, but somewhere along the way, the rendition went off-key, off-track, and off-brand. “I’m a risk-taker artistically,” she later said. While the sentiment is admirable, the anthem is one risk that, as history has proven, doesn’t forgive. Ashanti’s number one fan,Fergie was in attendance and wasn’t scared to share how proud he was of his babymama.

But Ashanti managed to avoid the national anthem “curse” that’s tripped up many a singer before her. And she wasn’t the only New Yorker to take the field. Just a night prior, the Yankees had rolled out Fat Joe for a pregame performance. To say fans were “underwhelmed” would be putting it kindly; Joe’s Bronx-bound swagger didn’t quite translate to Yankee Stadium.

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Compare that with Ashanti’s performance, which seemed to have people at the game wondering if she’d secretly been coaching with Whitney Houston’s 1991 performance on loop. For the record, Ashanti has had her share of hits, but the national anthem may have just been her best performance in years! Maybe her rendition will be the one we’ll tell future generations about—unless, of course, Loomis somehow steals the crown by dropping some extra unexpected expletives in an upcoming debate.

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