On Feb. 24, at both the Senior Day and Women’s History Day basketball games, Washington University’s first official student National Anthem performer, first-year Logan Srinivasan, will take the stage to showcase his third performance of the National Anthem. Part of a new initiative to boost school spirit, the WashU Athletics Marketing and Multimedia team hopes Srinivasan is the first of many students to get involved. 

Logan Srinivasan taking the stage with his electric guitar (Courtesy of Logan Srinivasan)

At the start of the semester, the External Relations and Communications department began to hold student auditions to perform the National Anthem at WashU sports games. Students were asked to send in audition tapes, and after four weeks of auditioning and reviewing the tapes, Srinivasan was selected to be the inaugural performer.

“We got a great array of candidates. Obviously when you think about the anthem, you think about singers, but I think this performance in particular is going to be extra special because Logan is a musician. [He] really impressed us, going beyond the typical, traditional style and going with some musical styling,” said marketing and multimedia manager Symone Palmer.

Coming from a musical family, Srinivasan has been performing for many years. Starting with the saxophone at eight years old, Srinivasan now primarily plays the electric guitar. Seeing advertisements around campus, Srinivasan decided to showcase his guitar skills in his audition.

“I performed the national anthem for my middle school graduation, which they were live streaming on YouTube. So when I saw the audition posters, I took the livestream and submitted it and thought it’d be cool because it also showed how the audience reacted,” Srinivasan said. 

Through this new initiative, Palmer hopes that student National Anthem performers will improve the experience of basketball games.

“As a marketing manager, my primary goals are to increase game day attendance and engagement. We want to not just put butts in seats, we want to make sure that you have an experience that makes you want to return. I think this is a great way to do so because it presents us with the opportunity to make connections with students on campus. Our athletes are not only the brightest, but also some of the most talented, and so we want to do our part in helping them get the shine they deserve,” Palmer said.

Srinivasan is no stranger to performing in front of large crowds, having performed around 80 times, including at the Washington State Fair and alongside members of rock bands such as Guns and Roses.

“Performance-wise, it’s been pretty cool. I will say that now I’m performing in front of people that I know, which makes things pretty different. Like I’ve got to see my friends the day after, and I know I better not mess up, but I can also really impress them,” Srinivasan said.

Palmer mentioned that Srinivasan is intended to be the first in a set of regular performers from the student body.

“We’ll open up another session of auditions sometime in the spring. We want to give the community a chance to see this. There might be some hesitancy with performing, but Logan is gonna break the ice,” Palmer said.

When asked to give a preview of what to expect, Srinivasan said, “It’ll be electric.”