NEW ORLEANS (December 23, 2025) – The national anthem for this year's College Football Playoff Quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl (January 1, 7 p.m.) will be performed by Irma Thomas. The Grammy-winning singer had her first hit in 1959, and over the course of a six-decade career has earned the title, "Soul Queen of New Orleans." The national anthem is being presented by Vet Tix. Vet Tix provides tickets to events which reduce stress, strengthen family bonds, build life-long memories, and encourage service members and veterans to stay engaged with local communities and American life.
 
The national anthem will also be an opportunity for the Allstate Sugar Bowl to continue its recognition programs for New Orleans area teachers. The unfurling of a massive American flag on the field for the anthem will be handled by some of the top teachers in the city.
 
In recent years, the Allstate Sugar Bowl and the College Football Playoff Foundation have committed more than $5 million to the support of area teachers.
 
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.
 
While many amazing artists have performed the national anthem for the annual Sugar Bowl, schedules have never lined up for one of the greatest New Orleans singers 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."
 
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 motif 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 January 1, she will share that love with the nearly 70,000 fans attending the 92nd annual Allstate Sugar Bowl.
 
The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 29 national champions, 110 Hall of Fame players, 55 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 91-year history. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards, scholarships and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors thousands of student-athletes each year, while injecting over $2.5 billion into the local economy in the last decade. For more information, visit www.AllstateSugarBowl.org.