National anthem performances ahead of sporting events have always been a point of contention and division for sports fans. Some love the idea, some could go without, but there’s one sentiment most Canadians seem to agree on: the rendition of “O Canada” belted out ahead of Game 5 of the World Series was pretty strange, to put it nicely.
Singer Rufus Wainwright — who was actually raised in Montreal and holds Canadian citizenship — decided to put his own dash of flavour on “O Canada” Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Some believe he truly butchered it, others are of the opinion that the lyric change — at least the English part — was in protest to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 51st state comments.
Wainwright, while singing the bilingual version of Canada’s national anthem, showed no favouritism to either language as he somehow managed to mangle the lyrics in both English and French. To start, Wainwright belted out: “True patriot love that only us command” instead of “in all of us command.”
It could be argued that little gaffe was not overly egregious, a subtle tweak, perhaps, until the man of the hour went on to botch multiple lines in the French part of the anthem as well, as many on social media pointed out.
In French, after the “command” line, Wainwright omitted the “sait” in “car ton bras sait porter l’épée,” then went on to sing “des t’es glorieux exploits” instead of “des plus brillants exploits.”
As one would expect, plenty of the millions of Canadian fans tuning in for Game 5 had their opinions of Wainwright’s version of the anthem, and it’s no surprise which side of the fence most of those opinions landed on.
“I think there should be a fine if you change the lyrics while performing,” read one reply on Instagram.
“Can we just have a singer sing the national anthem as it is??!?” Read another.
One commenter wrote: “Can we have someone sing the anthem properly without changing the lyrics next game.”
“Just sing the anthem as it’s meant to be sung. These are the only singers we have available?” Echoed another.
“Please learn the anthem before you sing it!” One reply stated.
“I think we should just let the fans in the stands sing the Canadian anthem on Friday. At least they will sing it with the pride and respect it deserves and actually sing it with the correct words,” touted another.
While many were appalled that someone could mess up the anthem under a light as bright as the World Series, another interesting argument was presented: maybe Wainwright changed the English lyrics on purpose.
Wainwright’s English lyric change was identical to the one Canadian singer Chantal Kreviazuk threw down at the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off final in Boston on last February, in an apparent protest to Trump’s constant “51st state” and annexation rhetoric toward Canada.
“Good job! He made a good point. We are a sovereign nation,” one poster on Instagram wrote.
“Seems to me he changed it to ‘that only us command’ because Trump is threatening to take over our country? I thought he sounded beautiful,” wrote another.
Perhaps there was — or wasn’t — some kind of method behind Wainwright’s anthem decisions ahead of Game 5, but regardless of how or why his rendition of “O Canada” was altered, it’s far from the first time ever (or even this week) that Canada’s anthem was altered by a singer in Dodger Stadium.
Toronto-based singer JP Saxe, who performed “O Canada” ahead of Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night, also drew attention for his pre-game rendition of the national anthem, after changing the lyrics of “our home and native land,” to “our home on native land.”
The 50,000 Blue Jays fans set to swarm Toronto’s Rogers Centre for Game 6 of the World Series on Friday will surely be looking to bring the Canadian anthem train back on the rails.
And if the past is any indication, it should be beautiful.