A Canadian pop star was booed when she failed to remember the words to her own national anthem during a soccer game between Canada and Peru in Montreal on Saturday.
Alessia Cara was chosen to sing “O Canada” in French before the match, but she appeared to fumble and lose her nerve as the song progressed, Express reported Sunday.
A video of the incident showed players who also seemed quite confused as to what was happening. After she continued trying to get through the song, Cara eventually stopped and was heard giggling as the crowd booed.
Moments later, an instrumental version was heard playing:
Social media users were quick to comment on the video, one person writing, “A true Canadian sings those words from their heart not their mind and the heart knows all the words,” while someone else said, “She’s fired.”
“This was painful, pathetic and a disgrace,” another user wrote.
The song was adopted as Canada’s national anthem in 1980 after first being sung in 1880, according to the Government of Canada’s website.
“The music was composed by Calixa Lavallée, and the French lyrics were written by Adolphe-Basile Routhier. While many English adaptations of the song were written, the English lyrics adopted in 1980 are based on a version written by Robert Stanley Weir in 1908,” the site read.
“These lyrics were modified in 2018, when legislation was passed to change the English lyrics. The line ‘True patriot love in all thy sons command’ was changed to ‘True patriot love in all of us command,’ in order to make the lyrics gender neutral,” it added.
The lyrics are:
O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all of us command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Cara sang the national anthem in English at a World Series game in 2025 but did not struggle with the lyrics: