Hot new warm-up video from Joyce Didonato before the big night

Hot new warm-up video from Joyce Didonato before the big night

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norman lebrecht

October 29, 2014

She’s singing the anthem tonight at the World Series. Couldn’t make it last night because she was working with kids at Carnegie.

What a (non)-diva!

joyce didonato kansas

press release:

Opera superstar and Kansas super-fan Joyce DiDonato sings US National Anthem to over 25 million viewers at World Series Final after worldwide social media campaign

 

Lifelong Kansas City Royals fan Joyce DiDonato sings the US National Anthem at the final game of the Major League Baseball World Series tonight, 29 October, where her home team meets the San Francisco Giants, attracting over 25 million viewers. This is the first time in 29 years the Royals have made the final, which will be played out in Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium.

 

Her appearance is the result of a spectacular social media campaign started by fans using the hashtag #letJoycesing, which gathered immense momentum, pushing DiDonato to the top of the poll. She was first asked to sing at Tuesday’s Game 6, but said her prior commitments teaching a master class to middle-school students in New York took priority, stating: ‘I thought about it for two seconds, but I just couldn’t do that to the students. If I was 13 like them and the class got canceled, I would cry for a month.’

 

DiDonato, who grew up in Kansas City as an avid baseball fan, remembers fondly her father taking herself and six siblings to watch the Royals play at home, for which her father had to save for months. ‘It was one of the biggest days of our lives as a family. It gives me goose bumps just thinking about it. Being able to sing if there’s a Game 7 and have a few of my siblings in the ballpark — it’s not just about the World Series; it gets very personal.’

 

In another twist, Joyce last night revealed that her new-born great-niece is the baby at the centre of the trending ‘world series baby’ story of a Kansas City couple who missed Game 1 to have their baby but returned to Game 6 with their new-born.

 

The coverage in the US starts at 19.00 (ET) on Fox Sport. In the UK it starts at midnight (GMT) on BT Sport Channel 1.

Comments

  • Steve Wehmhoff says:

    She is a class act from to back! Didja know that she studied to be a music educator in college?

  • Brian says:

    She’s certainly mastered the art of self-promotion – with the help of her label and social media followers. Not that it’s an altogether bad thing but at what point does she risk over-exposure? (I say that in opera terms, not in the broader pop culture where most people have never heard of her.)

    • Janis says:

      At the same point Renee Fleming did when she sang at the Superbowl. In other words, not at all. Those who like her in the opera community will continue to do so, and those that didn’t like her to start with won’t start now.

    • cabbagejuice says:

      Part of the pop-culture will say, “Brava!” because they were trained by the media anytime a tenor or soprano shrieks out a high note as she did at the end. Others will say they liked Jackie Evancho better in the SSB. In this case, I wholeheartedly agree with them. The guilelessness and sincerity of a young girl are far more endreaing to this egotistical “look at me, an opera star” version that even violated its own rules. This SSB was flat, wobbly and expressionless. Come to think of it, this is how I felt listening to the “Non piu mesta” from Cenerentola, not flat or wobbly, but ego-strutting and even mechanical sounding.

    • A Ames says:

      Brian, who forces you to pay any attention whatever to Joyce DiDonato’s alleged self-promotion? NB: she’s been a presence on the internet since a time when the many millions who blather online all the time about nothing didn’t even HAVE computers, and as a very busy international “superstar”, she doesn’t NEED to appear on the web to “promote herself”. She “promotes” a lot of things in the meantime, and spends a lot of time working with young artists!

  • Olaugh Turchev says:

    And we’ll hear about it for years to come…

  • Dave T says:

    “World Series Final…. starts at 19.00 (ET) on Fox Sport”
    I just have to chuckle. These Britishisms are hilarious. It should be a brilliant fixture. How jolly!

  • Larry W says:

    “Those that didn’t like her to start with won’t start now.” OK, Brian is one. And another who doesn’t like her is….? I’ll wait.

  • Elu says:

    Just LOVE her!!! ♥

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