--- title: Watch Maya Rudolph's National Anthem at Tulane's Commencement description: It's the national anthem plus "Drunk in Love" canonical: https://time.com/3883004/maya-rudolph-tulane-graduation-beyonce/ author: Esther Zuckerman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-18T19:18:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:04.718Z og:title: Watch Maya Rudolph Sing an Insane National Anthem at Tulane's Graduation og:description: It's the national anthem plus "Drunk in Love" og:url: https://time.com/3883004/maya-rudolph-tulane-graduation-beyonce/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Maya Rudolph Sing an Insane National Anthem at Tulane's Graduation twitter:description: It's the national anthem plus "Drunk in Love" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Maya Rudolph Sing an Insane National Anthem at Tulane's Graduation ## Video: Worst National Anthem Performances [Watch (HLS stream): Worst National Anthem Performances](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/JP7GaDCj.m3u8) (2:13)  _Published 2014-09-12. Worst National Anthem Performances_ by [Esther Zuckerman](https://time.com/author/esther-zuckerman/) ## Esther Zuckerman Zuckerman is a contributor for TIME. May 18, 2015 7:18 PM UTC by [Esther Zuckerman](https://time.com/author/esther-zuckerman/) ## Esther Zuckerman Zuckerman is a contributor for TIME. May 18, 2015 7:18 PM UTC Maya Rudolph was giving the commencement speech at Tulane, but Pamela Bell also showed up. Rudolph brought her [_Saturday Night Live_ character](https://screen.yahoo.com/national-anthem-000000827.html) to life behind the podium in New Orleans Saturday, doing a wild take on the national anthem. Speaking [to _Entertainment Weekly_ in 2009](http://www.ew.com/article/2009/06/20/maya-rudolph-on-her-snl-greatest-hits) Rudolph explained that the Pamela Bell character was inspired by _American Idol_: “I was making fun of this new style of singing that people seem to do, where not only do they lay it on thick, they have, like, 20 different voices in the same song, which I find so incredibly strange.” Some of Rudolph’s [excellent](http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/jay-z-and-beyonces-baby/n13401) Beyoncé impression also snuck into the rendition, as Rudolph veered from the national anthem to snippets of “Single Ladies” and “Drunk in Love.” \[h/t [Vulture](http://www.vulture.com/2015/05/maya-rudolph-did-beyonce-in-commencement-speech.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3883004/maya-rudolph-tulane-graduation-beyonce/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3883004/maya-rudolph-tulane-graduation-beyonce/"},"headline":"Watch Maya Rudolph Sing an Insane National Anthem at Tulane's Graduation","datePublished":"2015-05-18T19:18:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:04.718Z","description":"It's the national anthem plus \"Drunk in Love\"","url":"https://time.com/3883004/maya-rudolph-tulane-graduation-beyonce/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","celebrity"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Esther Zuckerman","jobTitle":"Zuckerman is a contributor for TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/esther-zuckerman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3883004/maya-rudolph-tulane-graduation-beyonce/","name":"Watch Maya Rudolph Sing an Insane National Anthem at Tulane's Graduation"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Worst National Anthem Performances","description":"Worst National Anthem Performances","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/JP7GaDCj/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-09-12T18:34:28.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/JP7GaDCj.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3883004/maya-rudolph-tulane-graduation-beyonce/","duration":"PT2M13S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3883004/maya-rudolph-tulane-graduation-beyonce/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```