Fans often ask R&B singer and actor Jill Scott why she doesn't sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at sporting events.
The reason: She knows a completely different anthem would leave her lips, Scott told an audience during a March show in her hometown of Philadelphia.
The anthem she's referring to is one that she wrote as a teenager living in north Philadelphia, a biting critique of racial inequality in America. And after more than 30 years, she performed her rewrite while touring this year. The neo-soul icon gave the highest-profile performance of the anthem so far Saturday at Day 2 of the 2023 Essence Fest in New Orleans. In front of a packed Caesars Superdome audience — where the festival celebrating Black artists and Black women has taken place since 1994 and has drawn crowds of nearly half a million — Scott belted out her remixed anthem. She received ovations and applause from the arena and gained buzz across social media.
