NFL Selects Grammy-Award Winning Alicia Keys to Perform 'America the Beautiful' at Super Bowl XXXIX

NFL Selects Grammy-Award Winning Alicia Keys to Perform 'America the Beautiful' at Super Bowl XXXIX 150 Students From Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind to Accompany Keys NEW YORK, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Grammy-Award winning ALICIA KEYS will sing "America the Beautiful" prior to Super Bowl XXXIX at ALLTEL Stadium, Sunday, Feb. 6, the NFL announced today. Keys' performance will mark only the third time in Super Bowl history the song has been sung. Keys, who has earned five Grammys and is nominated for eight more this year, joins VICKI CARR (Super Bowl XI) and Jacksonville's legendary RAY CHARLES (Super Bowl XXXV) as the only artists to perform the song at the Super Bowl. She will be accompanied by 150 students from St. Augustine-based Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, which Charles first attended as a youth in 1937. The students will sign and sing along with Keys. Super Bowl XXXIX will be televised by FOX to a potential worldwide audience of 1 billion viewers. Watched by a record 144.4 million viewers in the U.S. last year, the Super Bowl is annually the nation's highest-rated TV program and the most-watched single-day sporting event. "I'm very excited to be playing at the Super Bowl for the first time especially because I will be singing a song made famous by an artist I admire, miss and respect, Ray Charles, along with the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind," said Keys. "I know that this is going to be very touching and memorable moment." Keys, whose recent album The Diary of Alicia Keys has sold more than six million copies, was nominated last month for eight Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Song of the Year for "If I Ain't Got You." She won five Grammy Awards in 2001, including Best New Artist, Song of the Year, and Best Female R&B Vocal Performer. Keys will hit the road in a newly announced "Diary Tour" of 34 U.S. cities. She will kick off her theater tour in South Carolina on February 25. In addition to producing the AMERIQUEST MORTGAGE SUPER BOWL XXXIX HALFTIME SHOW featuring PAUL McCARTNEY, Emmy-Award winning Don Mischer Productions will produce the pregame show. This year, the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind is celebrating 120 years of successfully developing a child's potential. With a current enrollment of 750 students K through 12, it provides outreach services to an additional 116 infants and pre-K children throughout Florida. The school provides free education and services to eligible hearing and visually impaired children in the state of Florida. Source: NFL CONTACT: Brian McCarthy of NFL, +1-212-450-2069; or Steve Brener of Brener Zwikel & Associates, +1-818-344-6195, ext. 103, for NFL; or Dan Bell of FOX, +1-310-369-6326; or Mika El-Baz, +1-646-840-5670, for ALICIA KEYS; or Jill Storey, +1-904-827-2345, for FLORIDA SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF AND THE BLIND ------- Profile: International Entertainment