Jully Black Sings 'O Canada' With Subtle Lyric Change

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People are still buzzing about Jully Black's rendition of “O Canada” at Sunday’s NBA All-Star game.

The Toronto R&B singer turned “Our home and native land” to “Our home on native land.”

Though she is not the first person to sing "on" instead of "and," she is the first to do so at such a high profile event.

“She represented the language in which we should be speaking. This is walking in truth. This is allyship,” tweeted author Amie Archibald-Varley. "The lands we have come to know as Canada, although many of us call it home, it is ON NATIVE LAND.”

But, the Toronto Sun’s Cynthia McLeod took exception to Black’s revision. "No. We do not get to individually change the lyrics to our national anthem. There is a process.”

As reactions flooded social media, Black spoke to TSN about how she prepared to deliver the anthem.

“I reached out to some Indigenous friends to say, first of all, ‘How do you feel about me doing this anthem?’ and I got some feedback,” she said. “And so I really dissected the lyrics, to really sing it with intention … Now I’m singing it in a whole other meaningful way.”

Canada’s anthem was composed by Calixa Lavallée and the original French lyrics were written by Adolphe-Basile Routhier and translated into English by Robert Stanley Weir. 

The words to “O Canada” have been revised three times – most recently in 2018 when "in all thy sons command" became gender-neutral "in all of us command.”

Many Canadians have pushed to have “God keep our land glorious and free” out of the anthem.

Check out more reactions to Black’s rendition of the national anthem:

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