The Buffalo Bills will open the first regular-season game at the new Highmark Stadium with a Canadian anthem, turning Thursday night’s matchup against the Detroit Lions into a nod to the fans north of the border who have long followed the team. Barenaked Ladies will perform "O Canada" before kickoff on Sept. 17, and Auli'i Cravalho will sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" afterward.
The timing matters because this is not just another pregame show. It is the first regular-season game at the new stadium, and the Bills are using it to recognize a Canadian fanbase that has become important enough to shape how they present the team. Pete Guelli said in 2025 that Canadian residents accounted for approximately 10% to 15% of the team's season-ticket members, a share that helps explain why the anthem choice is being treated as more than a flourish.
That reach has been built over time, not overnight. Toronto is less than 100 miles from Buffalo, Southern Ontario is an important part of the Bills' regional market, and the team has spent 2025 deepening that connection. Buffalo joined the NFL's Global Markets Program for Canada, partnered with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, and expanded its radio network into Canada with affiliates in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa prior to this season.
Barenaked Ladies bring a built-in link of their own. The band was formed in Scarborough, Ontario, in 1988, later became a two-time Grammy Award nominated act, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "One Week" in 1998, recorded the theme for "The Big Bang Theory," and was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2018. They also have a Bills connection: Barenaked Ladies performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" before a Bills-Jets game at Rogers Centre in Toronto on Dec. 3, 2009.
What makes Thursday’s ceremony notable is the contrast inside it. The Bills are not actually playing in Canada on Thursday night, even though the Canadian national anthem will be part of the pregame ceremony. That is the point of the moment as much as the music: a home game in Buffalo, a stadium opening, and a recognition that the team’s audience has never stopped at the border. The next step is simple and public — Barenaked Ladies will open the night with "O Canada," and the Bills will see how that gesture lands with the fans they have spent years trying to keep close.
