January 27, 1991 Tampa Stadium, Tampa, FL

Whitney Houston performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" right before the start of Super Bowl XXV, played at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida on January 27, 1991; the United States was embroiled in the Persian Gulf War at the time. She took the field before 73,813 fans and a TV audience of 115 million.

The patriotic feeling of her gospel-inspired version resonated so strongly with the public that it was released as a single. Within weeks, sales of video tapes, CDs and audio cassettes of her performance raised more than $500,000 for the American Red Cross Gulf Crisis Fund.

The single released in 1991, reached No. 20 on Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart; making her the second artist to turn the national anthem into a pop after José Feliciano's version, which reached No. 50 in 1968. When re-released in 2001, the single peaked at No. 6 on the Hot 100 chart; becoming the biggest hit version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" ever.

The single was reissued on September 27, 2001, as a charity CD single after the September 11, attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon and has been certified platinum for U.S. sales in excess of 1 million copies by RIAA.

Whitney Houston, The Whitney Houston Foundation For Children, Inc. and Arista Records donated their royalties and net proceeds from the sale of re-released single to New York Fraternal Order Of Police and The New York Firefighters 9/11 Disaster Relief Fund.

In 2003, this performance listed #12 in VH1 and TV Guide's "100 Moments That Rocked TV" and ranked #1 in "25 Most Memorable Music Moments in NFL History" to be featured in Rolling Stone.