Pictured: Sonya Bryson-Kirksey signing the national anthem before Game 2 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals Photo Credit: NHL.com
By Michael Wax
Through the Lightning's past decade of dominance, several things have remained constant: The leadership of Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman, the ownership of Jeff Vinik, and the ever-expanding Amalie crowd, to name a few. However, one constant during this stretch has been welcoming Lightning fans into games with her soothing vocals and undying love for the three-time Stanley Cup Champions: Anthem singer Sonya Bryson-Kirksey.
The retired U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant has been a staple at Lightning games since her first performance on Dec. 7, 2013, nearly 11 years ago. Singing has been a prevalent mark in her life ever since she was a young kid, and it has culminated with some of the most significant moments in Lightning history.
Growing Up Singing
Bryson-Kirksey was born in Greenville, South Carolina, and she was influenced by many avenues, creating a diverse pathway into the intro of her music journey. First and foremost, her parents:
"My dad listened to a lot of jazz," Bryson-Kirksey said. "I heard Ella Fitzgerald, I heard [John] Coltrane, I heard a lot of jazz. My mom loved classical. I heard a lot of Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis Jr, stuff like that growing up."
As she listened to various songs and genres growing up, the sounds of gospel entered her life from the church and gave her yet another avenue to explore.
"Raised in the church, I heard gospel every Sunday," Bryson-Kirksey said. "So I kind of sang everything, especially catchy tunes, like stuff that you would hear on Sesame Street."
The church's presence opened the door for Bryson-Kirksey to go from listening to music to singing music and beginning her career as a vocalist.
"Church has been a focal point all my life," said Bryson-Kirksey. "Since I was a little kid singing stuff. You see people in church singing songs, their style, the way they would sing a certain song… if you have a person who is very confident in their gift, and they put their own, I call it their own 'stank' on the song… it makes you feel a certain kind of way."
Even as the church provided more opportunities for Bryson-Kirksey to explore her passion, the idea that she would be thrust into any sort of career from singing was still far-fetched.
"I didn't even think I'd have a singing career at that point," Bryson-Kirksey said. "I knew I could sing, but I don't think I had the confidence at that time to propel myself."
The Air Force
Pictured: Bryson-Kirksey in the Air Force Photo Credit: Sonya Bryson-Kirksey
Bryson-Kirksey spent time at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, OK. She was in the role of planning, scheduling, and documentation. This detail-oriented job would later be essential to the details and preparation she would put into her singing career.
"Attention to detail is just one of those things that came with me as a person," Bryson-Kirksey said. "I think I grew up with it. Then being in the military for 20 plus years, you learned attention to detail, because my job was all about that. Specifically, I was a maintenance scheduler or scheduler of plans, scheduling and documentation. So I had to be responsible for lots of things concerning the aircraft."
The path to Lightning anthem singer started at a military conference. Her supervisor heard her humming around the office during the months prior, and she was asked to sing the national anthem for the conference.
"I was kind of taken aback because I had never done [the anthem] publicly before, other than with a group at school," Bryson-Kirksey said. "It was a new thing for me… sometimes it's a good idea just to do it."
In her first individual public singing opportunity, the nerves were certainly hitting.
"I remember being severely nervous," Bryson-Kirksey said. "But I also thought about it in a way of, 'Okay, this is a one and done kind of thing. I'm probably not going to do this again.'"
As she transferred from Tinker Air Force Base to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, another opportunity to sing arose.
"A person that I knew very well at that base asked if I would sing at their retirement ceremony," said Bryson-Kirksey. "He had known me since probably since we were kids because we grew up in the same community, and he just happened to be stationed at that base."
One opportunity turned into another, and before she knew it, Bryson Kirksey was seeing her confidence grow before her eyes.
"As time went on, it kind of just built up," she said. "A retirement here, some type of ceremony there, maybe a base function there. It kind of started to snowball. Once I said yes those first few times, I felt like maybe I had something."
Competition
As she continued to get comfortable in Arizona and singing in front of people, Bryson Kirksey encountered another opportunity to further her passion. This time, it was encouraged by her children.
"There was a singing competition that my children pushed me to be part of," said Bryson-Kirksey. "That's the one thing that I'm very grateful for, I have a family who encourages me about those types of things."
With the support of her family behind her, Bryson-Kirksey entered the contest and was pleasantly surprised by the response.
"I ended up getting second place, which I never would have thought that I would get second place in a singing competition. So that was a real confidence builder as well."
The song of choice?
"It was 'A Natural Woman' by Aretha Franklin. I love her and I love that song."
The Audition
Pictured: Bryson-Kirksey at Rays' Military Appreciation Night Photo Credit: Tampa Bay Rays
Team Tampa Bay has always been a moniker for the support that the city tries to bring to each of its professional sports teams. While Bryson-Kirksey was initially noticed at a Rays game, her path to becoming the Lightning anthem singer also involved the Bucs.
"[The Lightning] called the base to get my contact information and the base would not give them my information," Bryson-Kikrsey said as she chuckled. "They don't do stuff like that. They're not going to give away your information. So they told them they would give me their contact information, so they did that… I got a chance to meet John Franzone, who is the VP of game presentation, at a Bucs game nonetheless."
The turnaround was a quick one.
"That was a Sunday that we saw each other at the game," Bryson-Kirksey said. "Tuesday, I went to go and audition for him. And I think Saturday was the first time that I sang. So it went really quick after I met John."
Despite what she pictured as a normal audition, Bryson-Kirksey was awestruck when she made her way to Amalie Arena's crow's nest to find herself as the only auditioner there, along with Franzone and Lightning organist Krystof Srebrabowski.
"I remember that I thought it was going to be like ten people," said Bryson-Kirksey. "When he [Franzone] said audition, I had no idea it was going to be me, him and Krystof in the crow's nest. I thought it was going to be many more people."
After her audition on Dec. 3, Bryson-Kirksey was back in the building for the Lightning's Dec. 7th game against the Winnipeg Jets. She and Srebrabowski have created an iconic duo over the past ten years, with his organ playing and her singing.
"First of all, Krystof is an amazing professional. He is requested by big-time artists; people may not know that about him…" Bryson-Kirksey said. "Number two, he listens to you as a singer. However you're doing it, he's going to make you sound your best."
Even though Bryson Kirksey has worked with multiple organizations, working with Srebrabowski is different.
"He is a consummate professional, and I wouldn't want to do it with anybody else," said Bryson-Kirksey. "I don't sing with music for anything else other than hockey. He is the only organist that I sing with."
Bryson-Kirksey's journey with the Bucs and Lightning came full circle after the Lightning's 2020 Stanley Cup victory.
"I think my favorite anthem was the celebration that we did at Raymond James," she said. The reason it is my favorite is because [we] just won that Stanley Cup. And it was so exciting. I got a chance to touch the cup, kiss the cup, and raise the cup that night. So that was kind of like my favorite night."
Hook, Line, and Sinker
Pictured: Bryson-Kirksey before her anthem performance during the 2015 Stanley Cup Final Photo Credit: Sonya Kryson-Kirksey
For someone so ingrained in the Lightning culture, the idea that hockey wasn't a prevalent force in Bryson-Kirksey's life is hard to wrap one's head around. However, hockey wasn't that big of a deal for her growing up in South Carolina.
"I grew up a football girl," said Bryson-Kirksey. "My dad taught my sister and I everything about football."
Before her anthem debut, she hadn't even been to a Lightning game. But all it took was one game for Bryson-Kirksey to fall in love with the game of hockey.
"You talk about hook, line, and sinker? This girl right here," Bryson-Kirksey laughed. "Oh, my God, it was so fast. "
Even with a sport that has so many rules and a bevy of talented players all across the league, learning hockey was a challenge that she was ready to accept.
"You can't put any kind of a challenge in front of me and think that I'm not going to succeed," said Bryson-Kirksey. "I will succeed. I had to learn about hockey. And that was the best thing. I love hockey."
Presidential
Pictured: Bryson-Kirksey singing the anthem during President Obama's MacDill AFB visit on 9/17/2014 Photo Credit: MacDill Air Force Base
As Bryson-Kirksey began to get more comfortable singing the national anthem in public settings, she faced the most ambitious task of her singing career: performing the national anthem for then-President Barack Obama during his visit to MacDill Air Force Base in 2014.
"I was just happy to be there," Bryson-Kirksey said. "Honestly, I was just so tickled that I was going to be able to sing for the President."
Right before the event, Bryson-Kirksey dealt with a feeling that many individuals come to terms with during these big moments: Imposter Syndrome.
"It was one of those things where early in the day, that's where my nerves kind of kicked in," she said. "Because in my little self inside, I was trying to figure out if I was good enough for this particular event."
But as she had always done, she took a step back and viewed the opportunity for what it was.
"I tell some audiences when I do speaking events, sometimes with these types of things, you just have to do it anyway regardless of what you feel, what you think," said Bryson-Kirksey. "If someone asks you to do it, just do it anyway. Because obviously, there's something that that person saw in you."
"I didn't have any nerves when I did it, actually," she said. "But that morning, I definitely did."
Family
Pictured: Bryson-Kirksey with former Bucs TE Rob Gronkowski Photo Credit: Sonya Kryson-Kirksey
During the summer of 2021, Bryson-Kirksey was admitted to the hospital with a severe bout with COVID-19. That, coupled with her well-documented history of multiple sclerosis, left her in a very tough position over that summer. But her goal was always to be ready for opening night.
"I was weak, just my whole body was weak," Bryson-Kirksey said. "I had to retrain my vocal cords, retrain my body for endurance, because the thing with the anthem isn't so much the song itself, it's how you sing it and how I sing it.
"I use my diaphragm a lot, I use my real voice a lot, I don't do a lot of falsetto. So to get my vocal cords trained to the point where I could make those notes. Using my diaphragm and my big voice, It took some time. "
Even she will admit it took time.
"Everybody in the whole world saw me on opening night," she said. "I didn't sound that great. I was still weak. But as the time went on, probably about another month or so, I started to sound like my normal self."
At some point, it just became a waiting game for the veteran singer to not only get healthy but get back in position to continue her love of singing,
"When you're sick like that, you have to wait it out and let your body kind of flush the issue that you have, until you can get to a point where you can kind of work on your vocal cords a little bit because the other thing too is not doing it too soon," she said. "Humming or maybe singing little songs around the house is a good thing during that time."
While she spent time recovering and eventually finding her way back into Amalie Arena for the start of the season, she was reminded by the Lightning how much she meant to them.
"When I was sick with COVID, I got several videos and texts and phone calls from some of the players who were concerned, coaches as well, along with Mr. Vinik, and the staff at Amalie."
Bryson-Kirksey acknowledges that this isn't something that every NHL anthem singer can experience: Being a part of the Tampa Bay Lightning family.
"That means a lot to me," Bryson-Kirksey said. "Being there for a decade, almost 11 years here on Dec. 7, it makes me feel like I'm part of the family. That's something that not all anthem singers, who are hockey singers, even can say… I feel like I'm family, and I don't want to say I'm special. But I do feel special."
This love doesn't just extend throughout the organization. Part of Bryson-Kirksey's routine throughout games is meeting fans from all walks of life, and she knows that this city is special in the way that it brings people together.
"They're a city that not only sees you and watches what you do, but they also care," she said. "Tampa is not about any one individual… They bond together on the things that they should, making sure that people are taken care of."
Always Improving
Pictured: Bryson-Kirksey reading to Lithia Springs Elementary School in 2019 Photo Credit: Lithia Springs Elementary School
Decades into her craft, Bryson-Kirksey always finds ways to improve, analyzing the details of every performance she hears to try and adapt.
"I think I was probably born with that," Bryson-Kirksey said. "I noticed things that a lot of other people don't, and in music specifically. So when I hear a person do the anthem that's not myself, I listen for inflection, I listen for breath control. But I also listen for their style."
Bryson-Kirksey is attentive and empathetic toward performances whenever she goes to a public event or hears the national anthem sung on TV before a big sporting event.
"I don't do a lot of critiquing of people who do the anthem," Bryson-Kirksey said. "It's so easy for a person to judge a person's performance when you don't have to stand in front of 20,000 people and sing that song… it may be a good opportunity, it may be a bad opportunity in the fact that their rendition may come out bad, but all of them are learning times."
Part of the reason she can improve her renditions is due to the freedom the Lightning have given her over the past decade.
"I get to do it my way, I get to put my own inflection on it," Bryson-Kirksey said." And they want me to do it that way."
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Dec. 7 will mark the 11th anniversary of Bryson-Kirksey as Lightning anthem singer. You can catch Sonya at the next Lightning game, loud and proud, with Bolts Nation behind her.
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