Singer Admits She Intentionally Botched Canadian National Anthem to Needle Trump During 4 Nations Face-Off
Screenshot via CTV
Grammy-nominated musician Chantal Kreviazuk admitted she purposefully changed a lyric in her rendition of the Canadian national anthem to take a dig at President Donald Trump.
Kreviazuk took to Instagram after her Thursday performance at Boston’s TD Garden for the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game received backlash. The singer changed the O Canada lyric “in all of us command” to “that only us command” and she said it was to call out alleged abuses of power by Trump.
The president has said multiple times he wants to turn Canada into the 51st American state, something that has earned him backlash in Canada, including from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Before the big game on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gave another shoutout to these plans.
“To be clear I am fine with the haters. They’re mostly bots. I get how this works. I feel only all your incredible passion for our country and your kindness. I want you to know that I didn’t plan this or plot at all,” Kreviazuk wrote.
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She said she made the lyric change during soundcheck and decided to keep it.
The musician wrote:
“The anthem is not a lawful document. It is an expression of the collective, and it changes from time to time when the moment demands it should. So yes. In this very peculiar and potentially consequential moment I truly believe that we must stand up, use our voices and try to protect ourselves… no – we should express our outrage in the face of any abuses of power. I was raised in part by music that was inspired by brave voices committed to peaceful conflict resolution.
Canada , not unlike Ukraine is a sovereign nation. Period. We have a culture individual to others. We are united in our values. We care. We’re kind. We are strong.”
Kreviazuk’s post included an image of her with the new lyrics written on her hand, showing the change was intentional.
