Jully Black’s changed Canada’s national anthem at Sunday’s NBA All-Star game from “our home and native land” to “our home on native land,” emphasizing “on.” She says the anthem should be permanently changed.
“I wouldn’t have sung it if I didn’t believe it should be this,” she told The Canadian Press.
The R&B singer gave the performance at the game in Salt lake City, Utah, and told TSN afterward that she had talked to her indigenous friends beforehand.
“So I really dissected the lyrics to really sing it with intention. … Now I’m singing it in a whole other meaningful way,” she said. She has often sung the anthem in her career, but had taken a pause on doing so in recent years out of concerns about indigenous rights.
The Canadian national anthem has been changed in other ways in recent years. In 2018, it became more gender-neutral when “in all thy sons command” officially became “in all of us command.” That change was initiated by late Liberal MP Mauril Belanger.
In 2016, at an MLB All-Star game a member of The Tenors changed the lyrics to include the words “all lives matter,” which is often used in reaction to “black lives matter.”
Remigio Pereira changed “with glowing hearts we see thee rise, the true north strong and free” to “we’re all brothers and sisters, all lives matter to the great.”
