Nelly Furtado sang the Canadian anthem at last night’s NBA All-Star game, and despite it being original, many were turned off by her unique rendition of the song.
Furtado sang the anthem accompanied by Native American flutist Tony Duncan at the Air Canada Centre. She followed up Ne-Yo, who sang his own version of the American anthem, which was very well-received.
Furtado changed the tempo and pitch of the song throughout, provoking some to take their criticism to social media and criticize the singer for switching things up. However, others said they liked the simple accompaniment of her rendition. Ian Esplen of TSN tweeted, “On behalf of Canadians everywhere, we’d like to nominate Nelly Furtado’s version of our great anthem as the worst play of day,” while others were upset that Furtado would even attempt to alter the national anthem.
This was the first time that the NBA All-Stars game was played outside of the U.S. The Western Conference All-Stars beat their Eastern Conference counterparts 196-173.
