College student announced as Star-Spangled Sing-Off winner

NORTH LIBERTY, Iowa (KCRG/Gray News) - A University of Iowa student has won the Star-Spangled Sing-Off, a nationwide competition held by Gray Media.

Out of thousands of entries nationwide, Lily Schloss won the contest with her performance of the national anthem. Her performance came at a University of Iowa gymnastics meet.

As the winner, Schloss will receive a free trip to Nashville, where she will record a special performance of the national anthem. That recording will air on Gray stations nationwide later this year.

“I’m shocked,” Schloss said minutes after finding out she’d won. “I thought I had a lot of people voting, and I got texts every day, ‘I voted for you,’ which is great, but I was like, no way, this is a national competition.”

Schloss is studying vocal performance and music education at the University of Iowa and hopes to become a music teacher while continuing to sing. She says she’s performed the national anthem for years and has developed her own way to perform it.

“Over time, I’ve just kind of developed special little riffs that I do or the different keys I sing it in, but just the repetition of doing it at least 10 times a year, I’ve gotten very used to my rendition,” Schloss said.

Additionally, Schloss is scheduled to perform the national anthem on Friday as part of the Savannah Bananas game at Kinnick Stadium.