Super Bowl 2026: Charlie Puth gave us the Kenny G of National Anthems

Charlie Puth performed the National Anthem at Super Bowl 60, and honestly — it was difficult to follow Brandi Carlile’s rendition of America the Beautiful, but we got an absolutely fine, utterly inoffensive, and artistically devoid rendition.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with Puth’s performance, but it was very much the Kenny G of performances, containing a lot of technical brilliance with absolutely no soul. It’s clear that Puth can sing everything, and his pitch is beyond reproach — but it was safe to the point of sounding like elevator music in a mall.

Puth followed the rubric and achieved what was asked of him. Nothing more, nothing less. This is one of those anthems that will be totally forgotten in a few years and we’ll move on to think about who is performing the next one. This didn’t come close to holding a candle to Chris Stapleton’s performance a few years ago, which was one of the most memorable of all time — or, perish the thought, Whitney Houston absolutely slaying the anthem when it was her turn to take a shot.