Bills to honor their northern fans by having 'O Canada' also performed at home opener against Lions

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — The Buffalo Bills are honoring their fans to the north by having the Canadian national anthem performed at their home opener next week, and amid rising cross-border tensions with the United States.

The team on Wednesday announced that the Toronto-based musical act Barenaked Ladies will perform “O Canada” before the Bills' prime-time game against the Detroit Lions on Sept. 17. They’ll be followed by Hawaiian-born actress and singer Auli’i Cravalho performing the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

The game will be the first regular-season outing played at the Bills’ new $2.1 billion Highmark Stadium. The team previously announced that U.S. pop band OneRepublic will perform during halftime.

The Bills' nod to Canada comes as the team continues seeking to build its fanbase across southern Ontario and Toronto, the nation’s largest metropolitan center, which is located about a two-hour drive from Buffalo.

This isn’t the first time the Bills have played both anthems during games at Orchard Park. The Bills under former owner Ralph Wilson once hosted an annual Canadian fan appreciation game, which was scheduled near Canadian Thanksgiving, which falls on the second Monday of October.

The games were discontinued about 20 years ago, and before the team played a series of annual regular-season games in Toronto over a six-year span, ending in 2013.

The NHL's Buffalo Sabres have had both the Canadian and American anthems performed before each game no matter the opponent in a tradition that began with their inception in 1970. The Bills and Sabres are now both owned by Terry Pegula.

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