Lady Gaga performed the National Anthem tonight at Super Bowl 50 prior to the match up between the Denver Broncos (Omaha) and the Carolina Panthers. Accompanied only by a grand piano, Lady Gaga (born Stefani Germanotta) gives a performance that brings tears to the eyes. Watch the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-SYoFIEez8

The players on both teams are shown, as are troops stationed in Afghanistan. The Blue Angels fly overhead and Lady Gaga says quietly “God Bless You, America”.

Twenty-five years ago, in 1991, Whitney Houston performed the National Anthem at Super Bowl 25 prior to the match up between the New York Giants and the Buffalo Bills. Houston wore a simple track suit and was backed by the Florida Orchestra. Miss Houston gave a performance that was startling, for the time, and honored our military personnel who had just begun the engagement of the Persian Gulf War. Watch the video below:

Miss Houston looks almost shy before she starts and finishes beautifully confident with the F-16 flyover. Although both women were approximately the same age at the time of their performances (Whitney Houston was 28 and Lady Gaga is 29), they are very different performers and their stage manners are almost polar opposite.

In an interview posted today on Entertainment Weekly Online, Miss Houston’s brother Gary reminisced about her stellar, groundbreaking performance:

It wasn’t a lot of hype going in,” Houston’s brother, Gary, tells EW of that night. “She was like a little girl going into a football game — not really understanding the magnitude of this game. But she was very excited, like, ‘Isn’t this great?’”

Houston’s performance also happened at a critical point for the country: just days before, the U.S. had entered the Gulf War. To prepare for her televised performance, Houston worked with her musical director Ricky Minor, conductor John Clayton, and the Florida Orchestra and crafted a somewhat unorthodox rendition, which added an extra beat per measure. NFL officials weren’t pleased initially with the final result. As Minor told USA Today, “They thought the harmonies were too different, that it was sacrilegious.

Actually, one cannot choose between them. One performance cannot be better than the other performance. Two talented women stepped out on the stage without a net. They had no backing vocals. They has no pre-recorded tracks. They did not lip sync. They stood before the world and gave their heart and soul in performance.

And, we thank God for their talent.