American Idol Season 5 Top 16 singer Ayla Brown sang the national anthem Thursday night (July 21) at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
The daughter of former Republican U.S. Senator Scott Brown explained to Billboard magazine how she got the gig. “I sang for one of the debates in December, and it was on CNN,” she said. “The RNC thought I did a really great job, so I kept in touch with them and asked them if I could be involved in the convention.”
When asked which night she’d like to sing, Ayla answered, “The big night, please? Could you give me Thursday night if that’s possible?”
“Everyone seems to be really positive about what’s happening here,” Ayla said about the mood at the convention. “and there’s still people who don’t believe that Trump should be the nominee, but it’s like, ‘What are we going to do now?’” she said. “Are we going to continue to battle that or are we going to unify and stick together on this?”
Ayla who now lives in Nashville tours regularly, performing in the United States with Concerned Veterans for America.
“After the convention, I am going on my fifth overseas tour for the troops with a group called Armed Forces Entertainment,” she said. “We give these men and women a taste of home while they are so far away,” she said. “I just got back from a two-week tour of the Middle East. I’ll be going on another one to Europe in August through September.”
The singer’s latest record, “Let Love In,” was released in 2015 through a sponsorship deal with Texas Roadhouse. “If you actually go into any Texas Roadhouse, you can see two of my songs in all of their jukeboxes, which is pretty cool,” she said.
Watch Ayla sing the National Anthem here:
