Jon Batiste Unveils MY UNITED STATE Following Groundbreaking Super Bowl Performance

Following his groundbreaking rendition of the National Anthem at the 2025 Super Bowl, multi-Grammy® and Academy Award® winner Jon Batiste today unveiled MY UNITED STATE, a powerful two-track release that examines American identity through sound. The project features “STAR-SPANGLED BATISTE BLUES”—a striking reinvention of “The Star-Spangled Banner”—and “NOTES FROM MY FUTURE SELF,” a deeply personal and sonically expansive empowerment anthem lyrically written from the perspective of present day Batiste to a younger version of himself. A milestone recording for the maestro, stream/download MY UNITED STATE HERE. Watch Batiste’s performance of The National Anthem at the 2025 Super Bowl HERE.

With “STAR-SPANGLED BATISTE BLUES,” Batiste breathes new life into the National Anthem while honoring the true heroes of the country. “I originally created this for my Super Bowl performance,” he explains. “We went in a different direction but a key element in both versions is the Drag Rap (Triggaman) sample, a staple in New Orleans culture.” This is the first time in history a recording sample has been used in the national anthem. “My approach was to fashion the anthem into a piece that makes you reflect on where we are—our culture, our history—while being both harrowing and hopeful.” Layered with sound design, recording sampler, and innovative musical textures, the track defies genre, merging elements of classical jazz, American folk, R&B, and ambient music to create something entirely new. “This kind of approach is usually associated with electronic music or hip-hop, but blending it with these other traditions—it’s really exciting to see how it comes together.”

On the second track, “NOTES FROM MY FUTURE SELF,” Batiste expands his sonic vision with this masterwork, a true milestone in his catalogue. “Coming back home this weekend for the big game and processing the journey, this song poured out of me. The lyrics are notes from present day me to young Jon Batiste. I’m just a kid from Kenner Louisiana,” he reflects. “It’s both personal and universal in that it’s a self-empowerment anthem. A message from our future selves telling us to show up, to march!”

Processing the hero’s journey in sound and expanding artistically in the process this track is a work of beauty. “It’s a protest against apathy,” he says. “A call for people to show up for themselves and never give up hope.” The song’s layered production fuses orchestral grandeur with hip-hop beats and spoken-word lyricism reminiscent of early hip-hop pioneers like Gil Scott-Heron. “It’s visual art in the form of sound,” he explains. “Like a painting where you keep discovering new details, this composition is multi-faceted—filled with my reflections on life, childhood, the state of our country, and conversations I had with my grandfather before he passed. The good, the bad, the ugly—it’s all beautiful and worth showing up for.”

Departing from traditional song structures, “NOTES FROM MY FUTURE SELF” unfolds like a symphonic movement, with stretches of instrumental music and immersive soundscapes weaving between Batiste’s evocative lyrics. “I approached the composition the way I would a movement in a symphony,” he notes, underscoring his continued evolution as an artist pushing the boundaries of form and expression.

The themes of unity and resilience woven throughout MY UNITED STATE also defined Batiste’s recent performance at the inaugural Love Riot Festival in New Orleans’ 9th Ward. Held the night before his National Anthem performance, the festival—presented by He Gets Us—brought thousands of community members together for a day of music and reflection. Batiste led an electrifying two-hour set featuring special guests Ledisi, Flavor Flav, Dee-1, and the TBC Brass Band, among others. In a moving finale, he joined the Nine Times Social Aid & Pleasure Club in a Love Riot march through the festival grounds—an act of community solidarity honoring the 9th Ward’s annual second line, which had been halted by violence last November. Free and open to the public, Love Riot Festival provided attendees with meals, access to local support services, and a shared space to celebrate the power of music in bringing people together.