Canadian singer JP Saxe changed the lyrics of the national anthem at Monday night’s World Series game.
Before the Toronto Blue Jays faced off against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Grammy-nominated musician appeared on the field for his rendition O Canada. But instead of saying
as the original wording goes, he said: “our home on native land.”
JP Saxe representing Canada with the Canadian national anthem ahead of #WorldSeries Game 3 in Los Angeles 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/scMfXseJmL
— MLB (@MLB) October 28, 2025
Many people on social media were upset with the switch.
“I don’t know why artists feel the need to change the national anthem,”
sports commentator Ben Steiner in a post on X.
Steiner referenced a performance by Montreal-born musician Nikki Yanofsky, who sang the national anthem at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Her rendition had some Canadians “
” for “mangling the anthem at such a historic moment,”
. It was described as a
on the original by CTV News.
“Just sing it as is,” wrote Steiner.
Toronto radio host Greg Brady also felt strongly about Saxe’s version. “STOP bastardizing ‘O Canada,’ OUR national anthem. It belongs to all of us – whomever our parents & grandparents are, & wherever you are born. If you’re a Canadian citizen, or striving to be one – this is OUR song. It’s awesome being in another country, especially at a sporting event, hearing our anthem,” he
in a post on X. “We’re not at your concert.”
He said the Canadian singer “blew it” and that the O Canada lyrics are meant to unite Canadians.
“I want that moment of unity, above all else. Stop cheating us of that in big moments. You broke the shared experience. You had a civic responsibility. This isn’t negotiable,” Brady said.
One user named Stacey called Saxe’s version a
“pathetic, attention seeking stunt.”
Toronto-based lawyer Ryan O’Connor called it an “upside-down flag moment.” But another user named Kim pointed out: “Well, Canada IS on Native land.”
Well, Canada IS on Native land.
— Kim (@SHardy1910) October 28, 2025
Saxe was
in 2020 for his song, If The World Was Ending.
In August, he penned an
, explaining that he had to cancel his fall tour due to low ticket sales. He was
by artists in the music and entertainment industry — including singers Natasha Bedingfield and J Balvin, and actress Sophia Bush — who took to Instagram to commend him for his honesty.
“If the ship is sinking, you announce you’ve decided to be a submarine. Instead, I told everyone the ship was sinking. And somehow… they jumped on board,” Saxe wrote in the Variety article. He said he was grateful for those who did support him.
The Jonas Brothers decided to bring
Saxe on stage to perform at their Toronto show
in late August, after hearing the singer’s story.
The band also received some
over their own MLB performance at Game 2 of the World Series in Toronto. The Jonas Brothers played a Stand Up to Cancer tribute mid-game, followed by one of their new songs. Some fans considered it to be an “ill-timed interruption,” Billboard reported.
Canadian singer Jully Black also made the same lyric change as Saxe when she sang O Canada in 2023 at the NBA All-Star Game in Utah. The Assembly of First Nations
at a ceremony “for her strength, her voice, and her allyship,” the group said. Black kept those lyrics while singing O Canada at a law school graduation in Toronto later that year,
. She said she did it “to acknowledge the country’s theft of Indigenous land.”
Toronto singer
Deborah Cox is set to sing O Canada
at Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday in Los Angeles.
