Hurricanes’ singer praised for bilingual national anthem won’t perform at Game 2
Despite going viral for his part-French, part-English rendition of “O Canada,” Mason Greer won’t be performing the Canadian national anthem before the Carolina Hurricanes take the ice in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday.
Fans of the Montreal Canadiens took to social media to praise Greer’s Thursday performance ahead of the series opener. Canadian outlets, including The Canadian Press and CityNews Montreal, covered the widespread praise of Greer. In an interview Friday with The News & Observer, Greer joked that with all the attention he received for his performance he understood why people hire managers.
But the Canes will instead have Adam Lee Decker sing both the Canadian and American national anthems for the rest of the series. Greer told The N&O Saturday the Hurricanes emailed him around 11 a.m., and Greer announced the Hurricanes’ decision in a post on X Saturday afternoon.
In an email statement to The N&O, the Canes said they had Greer sing ahead of Game 1 “to welcome Montreal’s team, fans and media to Raleigh with the bilingual version of the Canadian anthem.”
“But Adam is our traditional playoff anthem singer, and we are returning to having one anthem performer sing the Canadian and American anthems tonight,” the Canes wrote. “Mason knocked it out of the park before Game 1 and always does a tremendous job singing the anthems. We are lucky to be able to showcase his talents regularly at Lenovo Center.”
Greer said while the decision was “hard” to take, he respected it and was thankful for the opportunities Carolina has given him. He’ll still make the trip from Greensboro to Raleigh to support the Canes as they look to avenge their Game 1 loss.
This story was originally published May 23, 2026 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Hurricanes’ singer praised for bilingual national anthem won’t perform at Game 2."
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