Opinion: CFL’s Grey Cup halftime show selection fails to meet Canada’s patriotic moment

Photo courtesy: Carolina Country Music Festival

With the possible exception of an Ottawa Redblacks loss, there is nothing more predictable than complaints about the Grey Cup halftime show musical act.

Selecting an artist that appeals to the entirety of the football-watching public is an impossible task, and therefore it has never been achieved. The annual announcement will always be met with a chorus of “Who’s that?” and “Bring back Blue Rodeo!” from certain generations, while others quibble over the genre or complain that their own personal favourite musician didn’t get the nod.

In general, the CFL has walked that tightrope better than most give them credit for. They have managed to land some surprisingly big names over the years, and the performances themselves have been exceptionally well produced. Despite the moaning and groaning, it always turns into the celebratory spectacle that it’s meant to be.

I do not doubt that this year’s selection, country artist Riley Green, will live up to that standard once he plucks his first chord at McMahon Stadium in November. And yet, this year’s predictable round of criticism may prove harder for the CFL to shake. At a time when a significant portion of the country’s population has chosen to go “elbows up” and buy Canadian, the three-down league has chosen to go American for one of our nation’s defining patriotic showcases — tariffs be damned.

This tension is nothing new. Over the last two decades, the overwhelming majority of Grey Cup halftime performers have come from south of the border, which has almost always resulted in a debate over the dismissal of Canadian content. The days when The Guess Who and Trooper were shoo-ins for a national audience are long gone. But in 2026, the context is vastly different.

This is a particular historical moment. Canada faces an active trade war against the United States. Whether or not you believe the rhetoric, our national sovereignty has been at the very least mocked and ridiculed by the U.S. President. At worst, it has been actively threatened by the elephant that we’ve been sleeping next to for generations.

The CFL has already faced accusations that it hasn’t done enough to capitalize on this wave of intensified patriotism, when a unique cultural institution could and should be elevated. In fairness, the realities for the league aren’t quite as simple as the critics would like them to be. The most Canadian of all professional sports leagues still has a workforce that is roughly 50 percent American, with players and coaches from all across the political spectrum. Several of their strongest markets also tend to skew more conservative, and appearances of partisanship have to be carefully avoided.

Still, patriotism is an expectation from an organization with a maple leaf in its logo, and anything less than full-throated support for Canadiana looks suspect right now. Nothing would undermine the CFL’s claims of national importance more than appearing soft on 51st state rhetoric.

To be clear, despite claims to the contrary, Green has never publicly expressed a political affiliation. He did face criticism earlier this year for agreeing to play at the Rock the Country music festival, which was organized by MAGA acolyte Kid Rock as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebration, but has since claimed that he would play at any event so long as there was an appropriate paycheque involved. Apparently, the Grey Cup met that low bar.

Whatever his personal sentiments, Green has tried to keep his public image palatable to all, though he does seem to understand what side of the aisle his key demographic sits on. In 2023, he caused a minor stir when he swapped out the brand of beer in public performances of his hit song ‘I Wish Grandpas Never Died’ after the original lyrical beverage, Bud Light, faced a boycott from American social conservatives for partnering with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

At the time, Green defended the decision by saying he was merely trying to avoid a controversy that the brand had started itself. That probably won’t fly in Calgary, given that Bud Light happens to be the presenting sponsor of this year’s Grey Cup halftime show. Clearly, the paycheque really was important!

It would be utterly dystopian to suggest that the CFL needs to put their halftime acts through a rigorous screening of their personal politics and social beliefs before they take to the stage. There is nothing to suggest that Green is a hideously evil or immoral person, which you can’t claim about some of the acts that came before him. But in the current geopolitical climate, booking a vaguely Republican-coded American feels like an unforced error.

Now, the CFL doesn’t have a magic wand that allows them to book whoever they want. Someone like Calgary-born superstar Tate McCrae may have felt like a tap-in here, but she recently concluded a tour and has nothing new to promote, which is typically when performers agree to halftime gigs. Even so, there are tons of talented Canadian musicians out there with at least an equal appeal to Green, and I struggle to grasp what distinct advantage his booking offers.

Country music might make sense thematically for a Calgary Grey Cup, and the 37-year-old is a budding star in the genre with a younger audience, but it still lacks the reach of bolder choices. The point of a halftime show is not to entertain the locals who bought tickets; the musician is a tool to build your brand and attract a bigger television audience. Green’s fans aren’t a monolith — for the record, my second-generation Punjabi-Canadian girlfriend squealed with delight when she heard the pick —  but his fanbase is overwhelmingly the same white, rural or suburban demo that the CFL already plays well with.

If you are going to throw the current patriotic fervour out with the 55-yard-line and the old playoff format, the least the CFL could have done is try to reach a new type of viewer. The NFL has mastered this art with recent Super Bowl selections like Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar, sometimes angering parts of their base to grow in fresh directions. Notably, Green will be the fourth different country act to perform at the Grey Cup since the last time the CFL booked someone from a visible minority — Lenny Kravitz in 2007.

The only person who seems to understand the need to push the CFL outside its comfort zone is B.C. Lions owner Amar Doman, who has hosted LL Cool J, 50 Cent, and Snoop Dogg for kickoff concerts and was integral in getting the Jonas Brothers to play the 2024 Grey Cup in Vancouver, by far the league’s most audacious choice ever. All of those performances were smashing successes; if only someone would learn from them.

My musical opinions should be taken with a grain of salt — if your song doesn’t include references to coal mines or fishing boats in Newfoundland, I’m not listening — but Green reminds me of kicking a 10-yard field goal in a close game. If you were going to fail to meet the gravity of the moment anyway, you might as well have taken a shot at the end zone. Just getting points on the board doesn’t cut it.

The 113th Grey Cup will ultimately be remembered for what the players do on the field, not what tune is played at intermission. However, the halftime act does alter the narrative around the league, undermining both their claims of bold ambition and national pride.

No matter what makes your Spotify Wrapped at the end of the year, that’s cause for disappointment.