Todd Angilly has become well-known since becoming the Boston Bruins’ anthem singer in 2019 after the legendary Rene Rancourt retired. At one point he didn’t even want to be the fill-in at the then-Fleet Center while he was a chef there because he saw how Rancourt captured the crowd.
During an appearance on the “Chirping Zebras” podcast, Angilly revealed he was bartending at TD Garden when a woman with a headset and about eight Boston cops surrounded him.
“She goes, ‘Todd!’ She’s screaming as she goes, ‘You have to sing,” he explained. “I happen to look out because the club is within the bowl and I look and it’s 6:45 and the game’s at 7.”
Angilly didn’t have much time to react as one of the Boston cops grabbed him to bring him down to ice level. At the same time, the general manager he worked under came into the club to see Angilly being pulled away.
“The only thing I can equate it to is an Elvis show,” Angilly said. “They had everybody up against the walls and they hustled me, and they were making me run. And I’m like, ‘I don’t run this fast! I don’t know what you want me from me. I didn’t do it!’”
Angilly was wearing his bartending uniform, but they wanted him to put something Bruins-related on. Angilly said an employee who was sweeping the floor had his jacket removed and put on Angilly. That’s when he heard then-public address announcer Jim Martin come over the speakers and say, “Now to sing tonight’s national anthem is Todd Angilly.”
After he completed the song he walked off the ice and was still confused as to what just happened. The jacket he was wearing was returned to the rightful owner and Angilly was left wondering how he ended up singing the national anthem.
It turns out, the person who was originally slated to sing was not present when the zambonis were cleaning the ice prior to puck drop.
“I went back in the elevator, I rode it upstairs all by myself, no escort,” Angilly said. “And I walked back behind the bar and I see this lady and I said, ‘Hey, what do you have tonight?’”
Now he’s the Bruins’ full-time anthem singer after Rancourt retired at the end of the 2017-18 season. He knows there’s no replacing the legendary singer, but enjoys telling the story of the first time he sang for the TD Garden crowd.
Angilly is no stranger to music. He studied it while in college and wanted to be a professional opera singer. He sang at Fenway Park in 1999 (and in 2012 as seen here) after the person who scheduled the anthem singers asked him after hearing him sing in the kitchen while working at the ballpark.
When the Bruins open their 2024-25 season in October, Angilly will once again take the ice as he enters his eighth season as the anthem singer.
Be the first to comment