Merrimack's Kayleigh MacFarland On Center Stage At Celtics Game

MERRIMACK, NH — Kayleigh MacFarland was standing on the TD Garden parquet amid a sea of giants when she looked up and saw the biggest giant of the bunch towering in front of her. The 5-foot, 2-inch, Merrimack resident said she is always astonished by the height of the Boston Celtics players when she is on the court preparing to sing the national anthem before a game, but that looking up at 7-foot, 7 -inch Celtics rookie Tacko Fall on Sunday was some next-level stuff.

"I couldn't believe anybody could be that tall," said the Granite State Arts Academy of Salem senior. "Standing around all these really tall people makes me feel really short."

While MacFarland said she is wonder-struck by some of the Celtics players when she sees them before her games, she is most comfortable when the TD Garden lights dim and all eyes are on her for the national anthem. On Sunday, she sang prior to Boston's preseason game against the Cleveland Cavaliers for the sixth time over the past three seasons.

"When I'm in front of a crowd like that I feel invincible," she said. "I am not as nervous being in front of a big crowd like that. It's when I am in front of a small group that I can get a little nervous. But in front of a big crowd, when everyone is cheering, there is so much adrenaline."

MacFarland said she "started singing before I could talk" and that her family tells her that she sang instead of cry when she was a baby. She said she had an audition to sing at a Celtics game when she was old enough to be eligible and after a couple of years was excited when she got the call.

"When the crowd cheers I get so much joy from it," she said.

She said her favorite performance on the parquet was last year when she sang before a game against the Toronto Raptors because she got to sing both the Canadian and American national anthems. She was also asked to sing before the 2018 USA Gymnastics Championships when they took place in Boston.

MacFarland is part of the Miss Teen New Hampshire Scholarship Program where her platform is promoting music therapy. She said she wants to study music therapy in college next year with Berklee College of Music among her top choices.