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Home · News

Conservatives Are In Shambles After Singer Remixes Canadian National Anthem During NBA All Star Game

Jully Black sang a beautiful rendition of 'O Canada' before the NBA All Star Game with a subtle reference that called out Canada's colonization.
Conservatives Are In Shambles After Singer Remixes Canadian National Anthem During NBA All Star Game
Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
By Malaika Jabali · Updated February 21, 2023

Jully Black left quite the impression at Sunday’s NBA All Star Game in Salt Lake City, Utah. Beyond singing a stirring, soulful rendition of “O Canada,” the country’s national anthem, Black made sure to subtly shout out the indigenous Canadians who lost their land to European colonizers.

The anthem starts with the line: “O Canada! Our home and native land!”

But Black changed it to “Our home on native land,” during her performance.

“Our home ON native land” –@JullyBlack 🙌🏽 pic.twitter.com/SMoxKHkMPE

— Andrew Baback Boozary MD (@drandrewb) February 20, 2023

This minor change packed a lot of meaning, as she wanted to acknowledge indigenous rights.

After settling in Canada in the 1400s, warring with indigenous populations and then controlling them, their land and resources, westerners also seized aboriginal children from their homes and raised them in white households in the 1960s (referred to as the “Sixties Scoop”).

With one word change, Black honored this history, saying in an interview beforehand that she “really dissected the lyrics, to really sing it with intention.” She also asked indigenous friends for feedback and received their support.

Despite Canada being represented as a country with less racial animus than the United States, Black garnered swift backlash from white Canadian twitter (and curiously white U.S. twitter, too).

The woke NBA hired Jully Black to butcher 'O Canada' and change the lyrics to purposely stir up division.

"O Canada, our home AND native land," to "O Canada, our home ON native land."

It all makes sense when you realize that China controls the NBA.pic.twitter.com/lnxY0Ko22U

— Harrison Faulkner (@Harry__Faulkner) February 21, 2023

Some people will do anything for a headline, what a disrespectful thing to do with “OUR” National Anthem! ❤️🇨🇦 https://t.co/omB2o4B3lb

— 🇨🇦Geoff Buxcey (Ret. RCMP) (@geoff_buxcey) February 20, 2023

Nevertheless, Black also got support from some indigenous leaders and elsewhere in the twittersphere.

@JullyBlack understood the assignment. She represented the language in which we should be speaking. This is walking in truth. This is allyship. The lands we have come to know as Canada, although many of us call it home, it is ON NATIVE LAND. #Landback #Canada #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/qgcHV2dGRp

— Amie Archibald-Varley (@AmieVarley) February 20, 2023

“It got a smile on my face,” Chief Wayne Sparrow told Vancouver’s City News. “To be recognized like that goes a long way in reconciliation. I think issues like this go a lot farther than people realize.”

This bold performance has now prompted a discussion of making a permanent change to the anthem. As she stated after the performance, “[t]his is less about me and more about being apart of the change in any way I can!”

TOPICS:  nba all star game
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