Though Lorena Peril has had an extensive, successful career since then, there's one moment with the 49ers she sees as one of her biggest accomplishments.
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A proud 49ers fan, she sees the Super Bowl coming to her current city as a full circle moment in her unplanned, but incredible journey to the Las Vegas stage.
For 24 years, "Fantasy" at the Luxor in Las Vegas has been drawing huge audiences.
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With dazzling costumes and beautiful performers, the burlesque show calls itself "The Strip's Sexiest" tease.
But the show is so much more than its visuals. Each person involved has fierce talent to back up their captivating looks.
A key example, the powerful vocals of Peril, who is the show's headliner.
Before she became the star of the show, she was a housekeeper at a Bay Area nursing home.
"I would just sing while pushing the cart, knocking on doors," she remembered. "Just sing while scrubbing the toilets. It was a lot of work."
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It was work she said she was proud and happy to do while she went to business college at night. But to Peril's surprise, things quickly changed while on vacation.
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"I got discovered on an open mic night on Carnival Cruise Line," she said. "I was just singing karaoke at open mic night and it changed my life."
She became a cruise ship headliner, eventually making her way to Las Vegas.
She's had incredible high points since becoming a fulltime headliner in 2000, but as a diehard 49ers fan, she says nothing compares to the day she got to sing the national anthem for them.
It was a dream for the San Francisco native, who grew up going to games with her family, watching others sing the national anthem.
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"We used to sit all the way in the top and my dad said one day, 'You know, you're gonna do that.' And I was like, 'I don't know.' And that day came," she said, "It was a home opener and my dad was on the field right next to the 49ers. It was a dream come true."
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She's never strayed from her San Francisco roots.
Six nights a week she tells crowds from around the world where she's from.
Favorite places and memories of her hometown are now feeling even more poignant for her since her father passed way in 2022.
"Fisherman's Wharf with my family growing up, we were there all the time," she said, remembering San Francisco. "Riding in the trolley and just eating cotton candy and just the sound of laughter. I miss my dad."
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In a full circle moment, she sang the anthem again during sound check for ABC7 cameras in her father's vintage 49ers jacket, honoring his memory doing a job that she loves.
"I think it's my path, and I love it, and I will never stop," she said. "I'm gonna keep going."
In the meantime, she's got a message for her football team playing the Super Bowl in a stadium just behind the venue she performs at nightly.
"You better win! You better win, and you will," she said. "Go Niners!"