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On February 26, 2024, an eight-year-old girl named Kinsley Murray sang the national anthems of both the USA and Canada ahead of an NBA game between the Indiana Pacers and the Toronto Raptors.
The video of her performance has now gone viral. It was first uploaded on TikTok by Pacers’ official account, with the caption “The passion. The outfit. This anthem performance of the U.S. national anthem at an NBA game.”
Kinsley Murray delivered powerful renditions of both The Star-Spangled Banner and O Canada and even drew comparisons to singer-songwriter Fergie. She even threw her hands in the air and struck high notes, making netizens wonder about her identity.
In the wake of this, many social media users began speculating about her parents. Some believe they work at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse arena in Indiana, where she performed, while others believe they are someone associated with the Pacers team. In this regard, Instagram user @lul.ryry commented under @theneighborhoodtalk’s post.
“Her daddy owns something”: Internet speculates on the identity of Kinsley Murray’s parents
Eight-year-old Kinsley Murray kicked off Monday’s NBA game by singing the national anthems of the USA and Canada. The Pasco native donned a glittering red, white, and blue dress with the imprint of the American flag and accessorized it with silver star hairclips, white gloves, and a pearl neckpiece.
As soon as her performance video surfaced online, it garnered enough traction. Some people compared her performance to Fergie’s 2018 NBA All-Star Game national anthem performance, which went viral for its jazzy rendition and later made the pop star issue an apology for trying to sing the national anthem differently.
Others claimed that Kinsley Murray sang beautifully and was a star in the making, while others considered the performance a disappointment. However, there is a section of the internet that is wondering how the little girl got the opportunity to go on stage to sing two national anthems. Many predict it’s because she has powerful parents, while others condemn them for allowing her to sing.
While their status remains unknown, young Kinsley’s father is Shafer Murray, and the father-daughter duo shares a YouTube page where they often collaborate. The page has over 1.07k subscribers and 89 videos at the time of writing.
Here are some of them from @theneighborhoodtalk’s post on Instagram and @JebraFaushay’s post on X.
According to the Independent, this is not the first time Kinsley Murray has gone viral. Earlier in 2018 and 2020, when she was two years and four years old, respectively, she performed before local school sporting events in Washington.
Later, in November 2021, at the age of six, she turned heads after performing the American national anthem at the Gonzaga Bulldogs women’s college basketball game and became an online sensation overnight.
On February 27, 2024, the night after the Pacers versus Raptors game, Kinsley Murray was also in Ohio to sing the pre-match national anthem during an NCAA men’s basketball game between Dayton and Davidson, as reported by TMZ.
