Former KC news anchor sang anthem in front of 70,000 Chiefs fans, and one Taylor Swift

Stephanie Ramos is used to being in the spotlight.

As a correspondent for ABC News, Ramos has delivered prime-time reporting on immigration, politics and crime.

She started her broadcast journalism career as an assignment editor in South Carolina before moving to Topeka to work for CBS affiliate WIBW. After a five-year stint in Kansas’ capital city, Ramos landed a job at Kansas City’s KMBC channel 9, where she spent three years as a reporter and anchor.

On Sunday, she returned to television screens across the metro area and the nation, except this time to sing the national anthem in front of a sold-out Arrowhead Stadium. In July she performed “God Bless America” at Fenway Park. Before then, Ramos hadn’t sung during a professional sporting event since 2019.

“It was incredibly thrilling,” Ramos said. “There were fireworks going off as I was singing and helicopters were flying overhead, I’ve never had an experience like it.”

Ramos said it felt like a homecoming. After she nailed the final note, people who had watched her reporting on KMBC shouted from the first few rows of the stadium, thanking her for her coverage of the city and telling her how they missed seeing her on the local ABC station.

And perhaps Ramos gained a new fan after her pregame performance as pop star Taylor Swift was in attendance to watch Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce play against the Chicago Bears.

This story was originally published September 27, 2023 at 5:30 AM.