Southampton Graduate Julia King Sings National Anthem at Citi Field

As the summer sun dipped behind the bright lights of Citi Field, Julia King stepped up to the microphone behind home plate, heart racing with excitement in her eyes and a lifelong dream on her lips. As she sang the first notes of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the New York Mets beside her and thousands of fans before her, the moment she had imagined since childhood became powerfully — and perfectly — real.

“I’ve been working for so many years to get to a place where I’m good enough to do something like this, and in a position where I feel confident enough to do it,” the 2006 Southampton High School graduate said after the August 14 performance. “So, in the moment, you’re just like, ‘Wow. You did this. I did this.’”

King went into the evening having an idea of how she wanted to sound. She and her Greenport-based band’s guitarist, Joe Ciampa, both admire Chris Stapleton’s 2023 rendition, broadcast live during Super Bowl LVII.

“He nailed it,” King said. “It was the perfect amount of tradition and soul.”

The artist said she also respects Whitney Houston’s version, sang during Super Bowl XXV in 2005.

“It’s incredible,” King said. “So, I wanted to be graceful and effortless like Whitney Houston, but soulful and raw like Chris Stapleton.”

While the 41,782 fans in attendance was the largest crowd she’d performed in front of, it was also the one she felt most comfortable with, as the cheers of nearly 100 friends and family members from the East End, Rochester, Connecticut and Maine echoed across Queens.

“A private event or dinner party? I’m nervous as hell,” King said, laughing. “Even though I felt like an ant in the middle of the stadium, I wasn’t afraid because I knew we were surrounded by the people that we love.”

Roots in Music

King joked that nursery rhymes were her “first jams,” but recalls fondly plucking her favorite CDs from her father, Richie’s, extensive collection. This included lots of Motown, particularly Smokey Robinson, along with Van Morrison and the Beach Boys.

“I would pretend I was there with them,” King said, “I found comfort in it. Their lyrics and the emotion — they got it. They got me. And I would just dance around with my hairbrush pretending I was one of The Temptations, in Smokey Robinson’s crew or Smokey himself.”

She was in theater and sang in church, but didn’t begin writing songs until her junior year at Southampton High School, when she was also inspired by angsty 1990s artists like Alanis Morissette and Melissa Etheridge. King went off to college in Nashville and honed her songwriting craft there, though she still didn’t perform outside her home.

“I walked into my grandmother’s kitchen one summer break and she was looking at the newspaper, puts it down and goes, ‘There’s an open mic tonight at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. You’re going,’” King said. “I’m like, ‘I’m what?’ I ended up going and met people like Bryan Downey, Joe Monteleone and Jim Turner — players on the scene at that time ­— and it slowly snowballed from there.”

She moved to the North Fork as a sommelier, discovered the music scene there and formed her band. King released her debut EP “The Morning After” in 2016, wrapping it with a soulful, meditative twist on Ozzy Osborne’s “Crazy Train.” Her 2022 EP “Growth and Progress” covers The Temptations’ “Just My Imagination” and AC/DC’s “T.N.T.”

“My drummer, Rob Draghi, says it best: ‘Any time I listen to one of your songs, it’s like I’ve heard it before,’” King recalls. “I like to think that’s because I pull on those really classic feelings from that era of music that’s so nostalgic. It’ll never die.”

Road to the Show

Her dream of singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” didn’t die, either. At first, King thought her big break would come with the help of two-time World Series-winning first baseman Keith Hernandez, who took the title in New York in 1986 and is now a color commentator on Mets games for SNY. The five-time All-Star is a family friend, first meeting the Kings when he moved to Southampton in 2003. Living down the street from her parents, he started frequenting their North Sea Farms stand. It didn’t come together, but two years ago, King’s cousin Justin Friedman began working for the team as senior vice president for business strategy and analytics, and pointed her down the right avenue to apply.

Her submission ended up being too late for that first season, so she resubmitted her audio recording this year. When the organization liked what it heard, King was asked to send along a live video performance.

“Joe Ciampa and I had been playing all summer, so any time we were together with the band we performed the anthem,” King said. “The first time we did it was July Fourth, so we had a beautiful video from that weekend that I sent in.”

She then received a series of dates to choose from, and was told she had 90 seconds to sing.

Hernandez, who shouted out King and her family during the live broadcast of the Mets’ 3-2 loss last Thursday, said following the game he was thrilled to see the singer get the opportunity.

“Robin and Richie are neighbors and dear friends,” the 1997 New York Mets Hall of Famer said after the game. “Robin has housewatched my property when I’m on the road during baseball season, and most importantly, she had taken care of my late Bengal cat Hadji for two decades when I’d been out of town with the team. I was thrilled for Julia and the entire King family when I heard she was singing the national anthem at Citi Field.”

Performance of a Lifetime

King said she was overwhelmed with gratitude she didn’t know how to express.

“I don’t know how to thank people or process the level of gratefulness I have for all of the people that have supported me,” she said. “When you do this every day and you’re performing day in and day out people show up and you know people have your back, but when people really show up for one of those big moments it means a lot.”

What made the event even more memorable was that due to a rain delay the evening prior, the organization postponed a ceremony honoring current first baseman Pete Alonso for surpassing right fielder Darryl Strawberry’s franchise home run record. Alonso hit his 253rd home run August 12 to snap the record, which stood for 37 years.

“The one time I can thank the rain,” King said, laughing. “To have been there when he was honored and to sing the national anthem for that moment will be something I’ll always remember. It wasn’t just some random day. It was something very special.”

Especially because she grew up watching Strawberry with her father and grandfather Richard “Tate” King, whom the famous Southampton Tate’s Bake Shop, owned by her aunt Kathleen, is named after. At 8 years old she was watching games, back when the national anthem was televised, dreaming that would be her some day.

“Being able to perform during this game is my gift to my dad. He’s always been there for me,” King said. “This is what I’ve been working toward, and it was a way I could bring his world and my world together.”

Her father stood stunned — covered in goosebumps as his eyes welled up with tears — in awe of his daughter.

“I was overcome. I still haven’t gotten over it,” Richie King said. “She’s worked really hard and given 100 percent to get to where she is. You wonder what’s next? It seems the sky’s the limit if the right people hear her.”

Continuing To Dream Big

Her father joked a Super Bowl performance will follow, while King said she’s looking to take her act to the next level, going on tour and maybe even opening for some of her favorite artists like Grace Potter, Brandi Carlile or Bonnie Raitt.

“Dreams are one of those things you work toward, but they always seem somewhat unattainable,” King said. “And that’s why you keep working and keep working, but then you accomplish it and you’re like, ‘Shit. What’s next?’”

She said regardless of future ventures, she will hold this one close to her heart. Nearing the end of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” she placed her hand on her chest between a necklace she made with a picture of Hernandez’s cat, who died in November, and a photo of her grandfather she had pinned to her shoulder.

“I wanted to give a nod to Keith, who has been a solid dude to our family, and my mom, who couldn’t make it to the game,” King said. “My grandfather also loved Keith, and he was a huge Mets fan and a big patriot, so I had to bring him with me since he’s no longer with us. He was definitely there that night.”

As she belted the last note, she let out a sigh of relief while telling herself to stay present.

“The energy is so overwhelming that you try to stay focused,” King said. “I’m thinking, ‘We made it,’ but I also reminded myself to keep my eyes open — to live in this moment. Absorb your moment. So, at the end, I put my arms out to take it all in knowing I did it. I accomplished a dream.”