Fervent fans of the Philadelphia Eagles know their team is ranked tops in the latest power rankings produced weekly by Yahoo Sports.
The 12-2 Eagles drew on this year’s breakout singer in the Diocese of Wilmington to lead off their 27-13 victory against the perennially strong Pittsburgh Steelers in Philadelphia Dec. 15.
Olivia Rubini, a 25-year-old product of Catholic schools in the diocese, launched the winning effort for the Eagles by singing the National Anthem in front of 70,000 eager fans at Lincoln Financial Field.
“It was all perfect,” Rubini said in an interview after the game. “I was pretty thrilled.”
Rubini graduated from St. John the Beloved School and Padua Academy, both in Wilmington, before earning degrees in political science and government and international relations and affairs from Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md. She is the daughter of Ritchie Rubini, a performer and music producer, and Therese Rubini, a longtime employee with the diocese Chancery Office in Wilmington.
Rubini gained national exposure earlier this year when she made a splash with singing performances on the nationally televised competition show “The Voice” on NBC.
As part of promotion for the show, Rubini was present at NBC10 studios in Philadelphia earlier in the year while Eagles team executives were doing work in support of their fight against autism campaign. One of the team members heard her perform and suggested she should sing at an Eagles game. Rubini followed up with the team but heard nothing for months. Then, less than two weeks before the game, she got an email from a team official asking if she could do the anthem for the Eagles game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“I couldn’t have asked for it to be a better game,” Rubini said. “The energy was really great.”
While she’s always been an Eagles fan, this was her first game in attendance. The stadium can be overwhelming without standing on the field and singing to tens of thousands of people. Even with national TV experience, she had every reason to be nervous in front of such a throng. She had performed the anthem before basketball games in college and some other events, but nothing like this.
Sometimes at Eagles games, the tailgate crowd is still wandering in at opening kickoff. Not for this game with two first-place Pennsylvania teams going at it.
“Everyone was in their seats. Once I got the sound check done (about three hours before kickoff), that made me feel so much better. I got to make sure it sounded great.”
Rubini is focused on building her performance schedule for 2025 with a goal of filling an opening-act role for a national tour.
In the meantime, she plans to continue to root for Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley and the boys in green.
