Before the puck drop at the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off championship game in Boston, multiple fights erupted between Team USA and Team Canada fans over the weekend. Tensions were notably high on Thursday, the night of the final, as singer Chantal Kreviazuk took to the ice to sing Canada’s national anthem, “O Canada.”
Perceptive listeners may have noticed Kreviazuk's change to the anthem’s lyrics. Instead of the traditional “True patriot love, in all of us command,” Kreviazuk sang “that only us command.” She explained to the Associated Press that she altered the lyrics because she believes in democracy, asserting that a sovereign nation should not have to defend itself against tyranny and fascism.
Kreviazuk stated, “I don’t think it would be authentic to me to be given a world stage and not express myself and be true to myself.” Her publicist, Adam Gonshor, confirmed that the singer's choice was in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about Canada potentially becoming the 51st state.
Kreviazuk shared an image on her Instagram Stories with the altered phrase “that only us command” written on her hand, accompanied by a Canadian flag and a flexed muscle emoji. This symbolic gesture was a critique of Trump’s repeated comments regarding U.S. territorial expansion, coupled with threats of tariffs and mockery of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whom Trump referred to as the “Governor” of Canada.
Trudeau has labeled Trump’s remarks a “non-starter” and assured that if the U.S. president were to act on his threats, Canada “will be equally unequivocal in our response.”
Following her performance, as the rival nations faced sudden death overtime, Kreviazuk took to social media to address any backlash. “I am sorry if my performance of our national anthem rubbed you the wrong way,” she wrote, emphasizing the importance of using art to express truth and stand against abuses of power.
She further stated, “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.”
After Connor McDavid secured a 3-2 win in overtime for Canada, Trudeau issued a powerful statement on the platform X in both French and English: “You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game.”
