The Dodgers told me not to sing the national anthem in Spanish. I knew in my heart that I had to.

Yahoo

5 days ago

Normally, the performance of the national anthem at a baseball game isn't major news. When the pop singer Nezza arrived at the Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles on June 14, she was excited to perform the song in front of the crowd, then grab a hot dog and a Michelada and chill in the stands to watch the game. What happened instead knocked the wind out of her — and later made headlines nationwide.
Given the audience demographics at the game and the ICE raids that have rocked Los Angeles, Nezza (whose full name is Vanessa Hernández) planned to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Spanish to uplift the Latino community and honor the protests on "No Kings Day." She even practiced the version commissioned by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945 to ensure that her performance was respectful. But as fans later saw in a viral video, the team told her on the day of her performance that it had other plans. She'd need to perform the anthem in English.
Devastated, Nezza was faced with a choice: follow orders or raise her voice. She chose the latter. In doing so, she hopes she has inspired others to stand up and speak out.
In an interview with Yahoo's Laura Bradley, the singer shares why she made the decision she did — and why she doesn't consider it an act of rebellion but a gesture of love. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Until that day, I'd never been involved in anything political. I'd never broken a rule in my life. But when a Dodgers rep told me I'd be singing the national anthem in English, I couldn't breathe. I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. Immediately, I was clenching my teeth from crying.
About a month prior, my manager had asked if I wanted to perform the anthem at the Dodgers game. I was already scheduled to sing for the A's, which felt really cool because they're one of my hometown teams. So I agreed to perform on June 14. At that time, I was unaware of what would lead up to that day in Los Angeles: ICE raids, protests and, eventually, the National Guard.
Both of my parents are immigrants who are now U.S. citizens. Watching those videos we've seen of families being ripped apart is gut-wrenching. I can't imagine my parents getting ripped away from me. Where would I be today had they not come over here and had that struggle in the beginning?
I'd planned to sing in Spanglish at the Dodgers game until my friend pointed out a few days before that I would be performing on "No Kings Day." Eighty percent of the people in the stands would be Latino. There was no way I could go out there and sing the anthem fully in English on that day of all days. So I stayed up all night for two days straight learning the whole version of 'El Pendón Estrellado,' the Spanish-language version of the national anthem that President Franklin D. Roosevelt commissioned in 1945. It wasn't meant to be disrespectful because the lyrics and the storyline are near the same, the melodies are the same. It was supposed to be an uplifting gesture for my community.
I thought I was fully welcome to do this. In our emails leading up to my performance, no one with the Dodgers had told me I couldn't sing in Spanish. When I'd suggested I sing the national anthem in both languages, they only said I would have just 90 seconds — not enough time to sing two songs. No one previously ever said, 'We'd prefer you to do it in English.' It could have been such an easy, simple email. But obviously now, knowing everything I do, I know they were avoiding the topic.
When they said I had to sing in English, I just honestly couldn't believe it. Everyone could see it in my face. It was pure shock. The only reason we captured that moment on video is because my boyfriend was filming my sound check, and he happened to still be standing there recording when the Dodgers rep walked in. When I told her I wasn't comfortable performing in English, she walked away to give us some private time to discuss. I bawled my eyes out. There was no way I was doing it in English.
I asked my manager, 'Do I leave? Do I walk out?' He supported me to do whatever I needed to do to support my community. My boyfriend agreed, but he also told me something else: You're gonna regret it for the rest of your life if you don't do this today. He was right.
So I sucked in the tears. When the rep came back about an hour before my performance, she made sure I sang the whole song in English. Then, I think I spent literally 45 minutes in the bathroom stall — shaking, freaking out, just trying to gain the confidence to do what I needed to do. Because again, none of this is me. It's not my personality at all. I hate getting into trouble. It's my worst fear.
When I got onto the field and sang in Spanish, I didn't feel rebellious. I was singing from a place of heartbreak, from a place of oppression. I don't know how I got myself to do it, because I've never done anything like that in my life. I just felt this fire from being told no. But it was a different kind of no. It wasn't like your parents saying, 'No, you can't have a cookie.' This was about something deep and personal, not just to me, but to most of the crowd in the stands that day.
What reality are we living in where kids are being ripped away from their parents? When some people watch the video I posted of my Dodgers experience on TikTok, they say, 'Oh, she's crying because she got banned.' (Nezza has said the Dodgers told her she was not welcome back at the stadium following her performance. The Dodgers have stated publicly that Nezza is not banned from the stadium.) That's not it. I'm crying because I'm imagining my parents being ripped away from me at such a young age.
At the end of the day, I was fighting for my parents. Everything I have in life is because of them. When we had nothing — like, nothing — somehow they were pulling pennies for my dance classes. It was already hard enough to come over here with nothing, and getting papers was really hard. I want them not to worry about anything anymore. As much as I really, truly love being on a stage and songwriting and doing it all, it's for them. It's to give my mom her dream car, her dream house. Because they deserve it. They've worked so hard.
As I was singing, I didn't know what the reaction was going to be because my in-ear monitors were in. I did not expect anything from this. Of course, my friends and family were there and calling and supportive, but so were celebrities like Kehlani, Becky G, George Lopez and [Los Angeles City] Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez. It was just as aggressive a response from the right side, but the love outweighed the hate.
Morals are morals, and empathy is empathy. I have a lot of friends who are on the right side of the aisle politically, but they also realize that what's happening right now is wrong. Human beings are being caged up like animals, and that's not what God intended for us. I've loved seeing the people that I idolize stand up for what's right, and they're not getting backlash, and I hope that other artists feel like they can raise their voices too.
A lot of families are undocumented, so I get the fear of not wanting to speak up. But I hope that younger generations really acknowledge that this country was built on immigrants, aka our parents. We've got to stand up right now. Looking at what I did and the outcome, I hope they see that the Latin community has our back, period. I know everyone who has had my back will also have their back.