CINCINNATI — As the Bengals play in their final preseason game Thursday, one local woman’s dream of singing the national anthem on the big stage is coming true. She shares how she is able to pursue both her dreams as a singer and as an emergency department doctor..
What You Need To Know
- Saie Joshi is an Emergency Medicine Resident Physician at UC Health
- She's also been a singer for most of her life
- She will soon sing the national anthem on the biggest stage yet, at a Bengals preseason game
- She hopes to inspire others to pursue multiple passions
A time of day Saie Joshi looks forward to is spending time in music to decompress.
Lately, that’s meant preparing for the biggest performance of her life.
“Ever since I sort of got this opportunity with the Bengals, I have been only singing the national anthem over the last two months,” Joshi said.
Joshi was chosen out of a pool of applicants to sing the national anthem at the Bengals final preseason game against the Colts.
“I was so excited at that time,” she said. “I was like, oh, I got to prepare for this. Like, I got to make it perfect. So, yeah, I actually submitted the video just immediately after coming home from a night shift, and didn’t really think I would come of anything.”
But Joshi is balancing singing with her full-time job.
“I am a third-year emergency medicine resident physician,” she said.
“Patients that are experiencing the most difficult moments of their lives and I wanted to be their source of comfort,” she said.
She says while her two passions may seem totally opposite, they actually help balance her.
“At my job I make a lot of decisions that are game time decisions where it really matters what I do in the moment for that person, it’s very high stakes,” she said. “And then I feel like singing lets me express the fun, kind of lighter side of things.”
Now she’s using every free moment outside of the hospital to perfect her rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner with help from her voice coach.
“It's a big song to sing," Joshi said. "It requires a lot of preparation. I have sung it before, but nothing to the caliber of, like, Paul Brown Stadium.”
Whether she’s seen as a singer or as a doctor, she hopes she can inspire others that they can chase multiple dreams at a time.
“Women can really be whatever they want to be," she said. "They can be both things at once.”