Meet the Ukrainian immigrant — and Eagles fan — who brought down the house with his saxophone national anthem

Ivan Glubish, better known by his stage name, Vanya Sax, was supposed to be playing a birthday party Sunday — at an Eagles tailgate, of course — but had to cancel after he got the call to play on a bigger stage: the national anthem for the team’s wild-card matchup with the Packers.

For Glubish, 2024 was the biggest year of his saxophone career so far, and it ended with an Eagles marketing employee discovering Glubish through Instagram and asking him if he wanted to play the national anthem at a game.

On Jan. 5, he finally booked a gig he’d been dreaming of since he first immigrated to Philadelphia from Ukraine 10 years ago — to play in front of Birds fans at the Linc the following Sunday.

“For me to perform the national anthem for all of Philadelphia, it was such an honor, because I didn’t grow up here,” Glubish said. “I’m an immigrant. I was just very nervous. I wanted to make sure everyone loved it.”

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Glubish started playing the saxophone when he was 10 years old, after attending music school in Kyiv with his twin brother. His brother decided to learn the trumpet, so Glubish needed to pick something else.

The teacher in his class suggested he try the saxophone.

“At that age, I didn’t even know what saxophone is, so they played it for me, and I was like, ‘OK, I do like it,’” said Glubish, 35. “What I like to say is the saxophone chose me, not that I chose the saxophone.”

He immediately loved the instrument and later attended specialized music schools in Ukraine and the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts on a full scholarship to study the instrument. Glubish became a successful saxophonist, performing across Ukraine and even touring in other cities in Europe.

But in 2015, he decided to follow his twin brother, who’d immigrated to Philadelphia years before, partially because of growing instability in Ukraine following the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014.

When Glubish arrived in the U.S., he didn’t speak English and worked in construction alongside his brother, but he continued to play the saxophone and built his career back up in Philadelphia, becoming a full-time musician. He has played with artists like Snoop Dogg and in front of Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham. Glubish also became an Eagles fan.

“I appreciated that Philadelphia accepted me,” Glubish said. “For me as a musician, as an artist, and a person who is always trying to be respectful and always follow the traditions and follow sports, because I’ve always been into sports. One day I watched an Eagles game, and that was eight years ago, and I just started doing that. Now, I’m doing the Eagles tailgates, a ton of stuff.”

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Glubish was thrilled about the opportunity to play the anthem in front of a massive crowd at Lincoln Financial Field, but he never could have predicted the reception that he’d receive. His saxophone anthem — complete with Lincoln the bald eagle soaring into the stadium above a 100-yard-long American flag — was broadcast live on Fox to a national audience of 39.5 million viewers, and he quickly went viral.

Since then, he has gotten more requests than ever to book him for events.

“After, my phone just was going crazy,” Glubish said. “In 24 hours, I got 2,000 followers. I got over 500 messages [Sunday] before I even went to bed, and I’m still responding to people. The way people reacted, that everyone says they loved it, makes me so happy because I was really nervous. I was so, so nervous because that was a very big deal to do it, and I’m an immigrant, so I wanted people to be happy.”

And Eagles fans certainly were happy — with Glubish’s rendition of the anthem and the game that followed.