Local singer takes talent to T-Mobile Park

Danika Kloewer performed the national anthem at the Seattle Mariners game on July 1

By Allyson Ballard • July 8, 2025 1:30 am

One of the Seattle Mariners’ most recent national anthem performers may be a familiar face to Whidbey residents.

Singer-songwriter Danika Kloewer, an Oak Harbor High School student, sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” in front of a crowd of 22,351 when she took to the field of T-Mobile Park ahead of the Mariners’ July 1 game against the Kansas City Royals. That performance is her largest yet, another step towards achieving her dreams of a career in music.

“I would love to become a singer one day and hopefully share songs and my talent with the world, and use my voice for a good cause,” she said.

Kloewer, born and raised in Oak Harbor, has been singing for as long as she can remember. With many live performances to her name — including those at Buskers’ Corner, System Crash and the Oak Harbor Music Festival — she is acclimated to the stage and is now an important part of the local music scene.

“Any chance to perform or sing is always such a great opportunity,” Kloewer said. “It’s always so exciting.”

The Mariners are not the first professional sports team to spotlight her talent.

A little bit of networking helped Kloewer land an anthem gig for the Women’s National Basketball Association Seattle Storm at Climate Pledge Arena in July 2024. Jamie French-Bialek, president of Snohomish Sky FC —a semi-professional soccer club for whom Kloewer has frequently performed the anthem — sent a video of Kloewer’s work to the Storm, who then extended her an invite.

Getting the opportunity to sing for the Mariners, however, was rather like a roll of the dice. Kloewer’s mother emailed videos of her daughter’s Storm performance to the MLB team twice. Only the second time around did they hit the jackpot, receiving a response to their inquiry in March after sending it in November.

Sound check began at 1:30 p.m. on the day of the performance, and Kloewer returned later that evening to perform shortly before first pitch at 6:40 p.m.

Despite the sizable increase in her audience — recorded attendance at the Storm game was 7,202 according to the WNBA — and a case of the jitters, Kloewer’s performance went smoothly. Singing the anthem is now “muscle memory” for Kloewer. Having friends and family watch from the field helped, too.

“It turned out really good, a lot better than I expected actually. I was just really happy,” she said. “It went by in a blink of an eye, but it was such a great experience overall.”

Kloewer’s covers and original songs can be found on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer and iHeartRadio.