Anthem Singer Stares Down Heckler After She’s Interrupted at Knicks Game — and Has Karl-Anthony Towns’ Support!

The singer, who goes by Liceli, briefly stopped her performance, smiled and then picked up where she left off

Photo: Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty; New York Basketball/X

New York Knicks fans — and star Karl-Anthony Towns — are cheering on the national anthem singer who pushed back after her rendition was briefly interrupted by a heckler on Thursday night.

The moment happened at the beginning of the song, as the singer, who goes by Liceli and was wearing a Miles “Deuce” McBride jersey, went to hit a high note, and then stopped singing and turned around to seemingly quiet someone in the stands on Thursday, Dec. 5.

She briefly smiled and continued her performance. Meanwhile, the camera cut to the Knicks’ new big man, who grinned in an encouraging way.

“KAT and the Garden had her back & she crushed it,” the Knicks posted on X following the game, in which the home team trounced the Charlotte Hornets, 125-101.

The notoriously challenging-to-sing song has made for slam-dunks and airballs in recent NBA lore.

Last year, Public Enemy founding member Flavor Flav tackled the anthem, surprising fans and others with a memorable a cappella rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

But the Swiftie and U.S. women’s water polo supporter’s performance provided unintentional fodder when his vocal stylings had some scratching their heads.

“It may seem odd for Flavor Flav, a member of Public Enemy to do the National Anthem,” Flav wrote on X afterwards. “But I had family that served in the United States military and I wanted to honor them.”