‘O Canada’ booed at 4 Nations final as Kreviazuk alters anthem in protest of Trump

The Canadian national anthem was booed loudly ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off final against the United States on Thursday night. 

Jeers rang among Boston fans when Chantal Kreviazuk began ‘O Canada’ despite a request by the arena’s public address announcer for respect. 

The jeers continued throughout the Canadian recording artist’s shaky performance with plenty of red jerseys dotting the stands.

Viewers were heavily critical of Kreviazuk’s performance on social media. 

“Chantal, baby, what is you doing, this doesn’t even sound like O Canada!” Lexi Jordan posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“I’m Canadian and I’d boo her too. Have we run out of people to sing the national anthem? That was awful..,” Dylan Hodges posted on X.

Kreviazuk, who said the jeers did not faze her, altered a lyric in ‘O Canada’ as an apparent protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated remarks about making Canada the 51st state.

In an email to The Canadian Press, publicist Adam Gonshor explained that Kreviazuk changed the lyric from ‘in all of us command’ to ‘that only us command’ in response to Trump’s comments.

Kreviazuk also posted to her Instagram story the phrase “that only us command” written on her left hand with emojis of a Canadian flag and a flexed muscle.

“My voice probably sounded not as stable, and it was because it made me so emotional,” Kreviazuk told The Canadian Press in a phone interview Thursday night. “I was singing for our pride, for our honour, our sovereignty, our history — the good, the bad — and the future.”

The alteration of the lyric was something she had “thought about a little as the day went on,” but couldn’t shake the thought of.

“My philosophy as an artist is to always itch the scratch,” she said. “It felt like I would have been unsatisfied had I not itched the scratch and so I just stayed with it, and ultimately, it won the moment for me.”

“I think that it’s poetic justice that we won after I said that,” she added following Canada’s 3-2 overtime win.

‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ was then sung in full voice by the sold-out building for the championship game of an event that’s a table-setter for the NHL’s Olympic return in 2026.

The boos for ‘O Canada’ were in response to the U.S. anthem getting similar treatment at professional sporting events and before 4 Nations games north of the border that started after President Donald Trump threatened tariffs against one of his country’s closest allies. 

Trump has also continued to muse — including Thursday morning on social media — that America’s neighbour should become the “51st state.” 

The president spoke with the U.S. team by phone for five minutes before the team’s pre-game stake. 

Boos filled the stands in Montreal both times the American national anthem was played ahead of the country’s games earlier in the tournament. Those jeers hit a crescendo Saturday before the U.S. topped the Canada 3-1 to qualify for Thursday’s final. 

‘O Canada’ was tepidly booed by some fans Monday before a 5-3 victory over Finland that booked a spot in the championship game. 

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