The Soul Queen of New Orleans Will Welcome Her Guests to the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1

For 92 years, the Sugar Bowl has been part of New Orleans, a city with a heartbeat provided by its music. The Bowl takes pride in representing the city’s music excellence and honoring its country each year with a national anthem that provides a proper tribute to the song and the nation. That was never more evident than last year when local artist Samyra delivered a memorable and moving performance after the awful Bourbon Street attack delayed the Sugar Bowl by 18 hours.

While many amazing New Orleans performers have performed the national anthem for the annual Sugar Bowl, schedules have never lined up for one of the greatest New Orleans artists of all time to give fans from around the world the opportunity to hear her. However, tonight, Ms. Irma Thomas, the Soul Queen of New Orleans, will perform the Star-Spangled Banner.

There may be no artist who embodies the joie de vivre of New Orleans more than Thomas, who moved to the city in the late 1950s and has been a staple at festivals and in her own New Orleans clubs for more than half a century.

“I’m just Irma,” she said. “I love what I do; it’s a gift I’m blessed with to bring joy to others. I’m 84 years old and I plan on bringing joy through music for as long as I can.”

It’s often said that New Orleans has something for everyone, whether it’s food, museums, architecture, art, or most especially in the music. There’s no shortage of variety in the music to be found in the city – both for the locals and for visitors – as Thomas says, you’re not a tourist in New Orleans, you’re a guest.

“We have great hospitality here in Nola,” she said. “We embrace our visitors, I don’t even call them tourists, they’re our guests. They have the choice of things to see and enjoy – we have an amazing aquarium; we have the zoo; we have golf courses; we have great bowling alleys, for people like myself who love bowling; and most importantly, we have music, something for everyone. Just ask your concierge what you want to see, you can find it here in the city.”

Thomas has played venues all over the world, but she maintains that there’s no place like home.

“When you say home, that says a lot,” she said. “When I was growing up here, there was always music around somewhere, always music, celebration of somebody passing, celebration of somebody’s birthday, celebrating a marriage, there’s always music. And that’s still true. That’s a very important part of this city that brings joy.”

When it comes to the national anthem, despite New Orleans’ reputation for adding a little spice to every recipe, you’re going to get a traditional performance from Thomas.

“I don’t change it up, I do it straight just like it is,” she said. “The ending, I may do a bit more, hitting that high note, but I keep it pretty much as it was done. I don’t try to make it different; that’s not the way it’s supposed to be done.”

Thomas earned her first professional gig in 1959 while working as a waitress in New Orleans and she’s still going strong today. She has been nominated for multiple GRAMMY Awards and earned her first GRAMMY with a Best Contemporary Blues Album for 2007’s After the Rain. The album was a response to Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed Thomas’ long-running nightclub. She has been recognized multiple times as the top “Soul Blues Female Artist” by the Blues Music Awards and received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance at the Americana Music Awards in 2018.

In May, she appeared onstage with the Rolling Stones at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival where she joined Mick Jagger for a duet of “Time Is On My Side,” which the Stones released months after her version. Her song “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)” is a recurring motive in the popular television series Black Mirror.

There’s a reason Thomas was the no-brainer selection to perform the anthem at the first New Orleans Saints’ game in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina (she was accompanied by the late Allen Toussaint, another New Orleans legend, on piano). The Soul Queen of New Orleans earned that title through her excellence and her genuine love for her home. And tonight, she will share that love with the nearly 70,000 fans attending the 92nd annual Allstate Sugar Bowl.