--- description: Because awwww title: Watch a Baby-Faced Taylor Swift Sing the National Anthem in 2002 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ba0618c93809fd8/69876856f887dc14ece88544/taylor-swift3.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [celebrities](/tag/celebrities/) ## celebrities Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch a Baby-Faced Taylor Swift Sing the National Anthem in 2002 by [Sam Frizell](/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 12, 2014 12:50 PM CUT  by [Sam Frizell](/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 12, 2014 12:50 PM CUT Taylor Smith wasn’t always the svelte, 5-foot-10 24-year-old she is today, and that’s part of her charm. We’ve watched her grow like fond parents who indulge in [memories of of her early years](http://time.com/3540517/taylor-swift-1979-music-pop-country-photos/ "undefined"), as a curly-haired newbie and a guitar-slinging warbler. In 2002, when Swift was a wee 12-year-old, she sang the national anthem at a Detroit Pistons game in her home state of Pennsylvania. Though her singing does sound expectedly thin in a pubescent kind of way, she clearly had the makings of a great voice. This is what Taylor Swift singing The Star-Spangled banner at age 12 sounds like. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3580679/watch-a-baby-faced-taylor-swift-sing-the-national-anthem-in-2002/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3580679/watch-a-baby-faced-taylor-swift-sing-the-national-anthem-in-2002/"},"headline":"Watch a Baby-Faced Taylor Swift Sing the National Anthem in 2002","datePublished":"2014-11-12T12:50:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:22:54.140Z","description":"Because awwww","url":"https://time.com/3580679/watch-a-baby-faced-taylor-swift-sing-the-national-anthem-in-2002/","keywords":["celebrities","Taylor Swift","National Anthem"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ba0618c93809fd8/69876856f887dc14ece88544/taylor-swift3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ba0618c93809fd8/69876856f887dc14ece88544/taylor-swift3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Taylor Swift","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"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":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/celebrities/","name":"celebrities"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3580679/watch-a-baby-faced-taylor-swift-sing-the-national-anthem-in-2002/","name":"Watch a Baby-Faced Taylor Swift Sing the National Anthem in 2002"}}]}] ```