Jon Batiste, the 38-year-old multi-talented musician, made his Super Bowl debut by performing the national anthem at the 2025 game in his hometown of New Orleans.
The performance kicked off the matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles this Sunday. He joined a star-studded lineup for the 2025 Super Bowl, following Reba McEntire’s 2024 national anthem performance, according to the New York Post.
Lauren Daigle and Trombone Shorty sang “America the Beautiful,” Ledisi performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and Kendrick Lamar headlined the halftime show.
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Batiste brought an innovative spin on the classic, with a drum sample toward the end of the performance.
Here’s a closer look at the multi-talented artist.
Batiste formed a jazz band
Batiste launched his music career after studying at Juilliard. He formed the jazz band Stay Human with his friends. The group gained fame performing on New York streets before becoming the house band for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2015.
Batiste’s rise to prominence continued in 2020 when he performed at a Juneteenth celebration in Brooklyn alongside jazz pianist Matt Whitaker. That year, he also composed the score for Pixar’s Soul, earning Oscar, Golden Globe, and Grammy awards for his work.
Batiste boasts of an impressive discography, including six studio albums, nine EPs, and three collaborative projects.
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Over the years, he has worked with music legends like Prince, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Ed Sheeran, Lenny Kravitz, and Lana Del Rey.
Batiste won five Grammys at the 2022 event alone
Batiste dominated the 2022 Grammy Awards, winning five trophies. His accolades included Album of the Year for We Are, Best Music Video for Freedom, and Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for Soul. He also secured Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song for Cry.
“Man, it’s so much I’m still processing,” he later said on Colbert’s show about winning Album of the Year. “First, I thought the fact that my family was there with me to witness that is incredible. It’s incredible. Just so much went into that moment: piano lessons, some civil rights marches.”
At the 2025 Grammys, he won Best Music Film for his documentary American Symphony and Best Song Written for Visual Media for It Never Went Away.
Batiste is also an actor
Batiste has made important acting appearances, including portraying musician Billy Preston in Saturday Night, a film about the first SNL episode, for which he also composed the score.
In 2023, he joined the star-studded cast of The Color Purple alongside Fantasia, Taraji P. Henson, and Danielle Brooks.
Batiste has been married for three years now
Batiste has been married to journalist and best-selling author Suleika Jaouad since February 2022. The couple first met as teenagers at band camp and reconnected 12 years later during Jaouad’s leukemia treatment.
Diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at 22, Jaouad overcame the illness but faced a relapse in December 2021.
“When I got the biopsy results, it felt like a sinkhole opened up and swallowed everything,” she wrote in a newsletter at the time. “Within 72 hours, Jon and I packed our things, found friends to care for Oscar and Loulou, gave copies of our keys to our neighbor, canceled work and cleared our schedules, and were on our way to the hospital in New York City.”
Jaouad revealed in December 2024 that she is battling cancer for the third time after initially becoming cancer-free following a bone marrow transplant.
Due to her health, Jaouad and Batiste skipped the 2025 Grammys but celebrated on Instagram as their documentary American Symphony won two Grammy awards. The documentary is about the couple’s relationship and Jaouad’s cancer battle
