The NFL announced Friday that it plans to open Super Bowl LVIII with the song 'Lift Every Voice and Sing,' also known as the 'Black National Anthem,' which has raised controversy on social networks. The game, to be played on February 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Nevada, still has no confirmed teams.
The sond will be performed by R&B singer Andra Day, among other performances that include artists such as Reba McEntire and Post Malone.
The song was originally written in 1900 by James Weldon Johnson and was taken up as a banner by the African-American community in the pursuit of their rights.
Day, 39, was quick to celebrate the announcement on her X account, formerly known as Twitter. "Peace and Blessings!!!! Performing the anthem at the SuperBowl yall!!! Thankful! Thank you God," she wrote.
However, some users on social media criticized the NFL's decision, claiming that such a performance would bring more negativity than positivity.
"There is no need for a separate national anthem for the black community. We don't need a 'black' national anthem and an 'everyone else' national anthem. Our national anthem is called that for a reason: it's for all Americans," one user wrote.
For another X user, while the song in question is "beautiful," he would prefer not to have "two (anthems) divided by race."
The lyrics of the 'Black National Anthem'
Lift every voice and sing,
'Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on 'til victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
'Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
