How Canadian music took over the 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend

Toronto was alive with music at the 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend – not just on the ice, but all over the city.

As the spectacle of hockey returned to the city for the first time since 2000 and to Canada for the first time since 2012, the multi-day event brought live music from major stars including Justin Bieber, Tate McRae, Nelly Furtado and Diplo. It also featured a viral press conference from crooner Michael Bublé, hockey players rubbing elbows with celebrities and a spotlight on up-and-coming Canadian musicians such as Loud Luxury, The Glorious Sons, TALK, The Reklaws and Owen Riegling.

As the stars of the game played each other in skill contests and 3-on-3 hockey, music was an integral component. Each of the four teams selected by an NHL player was co-captained by a celebrity: Tate McRae, Justin Bieber, Michael Bublé and Will Arnett. They weren't just there to sit on the bench, but they helped select every team in Thursday night's (Feb. 1) player draft. Bieber even helped warm up the players on the ice.

“We went all-in [with music] this year,” says NHL Chief Content Officer Steve Mayer. “We are so happy to have what represents not only the best in the NHL coming here, but in our minds, the best in Canadian music. And being here in Canada with seven Canadian groups, we know our Canadian music better.”

When it comes to music and sports, it's hard to beat the Super Bowl. The NFL halftime show has become one of the top musical events of the year, with fans obsessing (and sometimes even betting) about who will get the coveted top spot, who the special guests will be and what songs will they perform?

Of the “big four” sports leagues, the NHL lags behind the others, including the NBA and Major League Baseball in terms of viewership and attendance – but not in Canada. Here, the National Hockey League is the most popular professional league, according to a Research 2023 from the Angus Reid Institute. Although basketball fever reached its peak in Canada in 2019 with the Toronto Raptors' first championship, the Toronto Maple Leafs are still making money in the city and other Canadian teams are not far behind.

It's hard to compete with the other major leagues for celebrity and star power — especially now that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's relationship has turned the Kansas City Chiefs into full-fledged mainstream pop culture events. But hockey culture is so ingrained in certain notions of Canadian identity that the success of musical integration this year shows just how strong the country's artists are right now.

The headliner of this year's NHL All-Star Game was one of the biggest artists in the world. Tate McRae performed between the second and third breaks of the main event on Saturday night (February 3). The Calgary-born singer performed “greedy,” her No. 1 Billboard Canadian and Global Hot 100 hit, along with “the former” and, for the first time, “run for the hills.” It's all from her latest album, think later whose cover features the singer in goalie pads (on the wrong feet, of course).

McRae comes from a hockey family and the culture of the sport is an important part of her image today. So it felt natural to see her perform on three different ice stages in a sparkly top with six dancers and the production value you might see at a major awards show.

Mayer says the NHL has its own production unit staffed with people from the concert industry and a team dedicated specifically to clearing music. For many artists in Canada, like Arkells and the Beaches, having a song played on Hockey Night In Canada is a rite of passage. Rock band The Glorious Sons said Billboard Canada The broadcast of their song “Speed ​​of Light” was a breakthrough point for them.

Mayer says the NHL team prides itself on the entertainment it is able to produce. It pays when you have a great artist like McRae who is such a supporter of the game. “My family has been really involved in hockey my whole life, but I've always been too busy dancing, so I honestly couldn't be involved in it,” says McRae. Billboard Canada. “And for a year or two now, I feel like I've been fully immersed in the world of hockey.”

In another interview with Billboard Canada, Michael Bublé says he's proud to see what McRae has accomplished and called her before the game. “I told her I was happy and proud of her,” he says. “And as a Canadian, it made me happy to see another young Canadian breaking through….Honestly, we're kind of dominating music right now. We send a ton of artists out there, and we already have a ton of career artists out there. This little place did a lot of great things.”

Bublé went viral at an All-Star press conference saying he made his All-Star picks while having mushrooms, a potential joke that was taken seriously by many people online. “This is what I was sent to do,” he says in a rare moment of seriousness in our conversation, before doing his impression of a hockey player interview with 110% sincerity and cliche. “I'm an entertainer, man. And the truth is, I'm living my best life. I'm having so much fun.”

Despite his non-stop banter, Bublé took the weekend very seriously. According to Mayer, the league sent him stats and information so he could pick the best possible team along with Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes. (His team did not win, however, eventually losing to hometown hero Auston Matthews' team co-captained by Bieber). Owner of the Vancouver Giants junior hockey team, he is a huge hockey fan and friend of many of the players.

So is Bieber, who is often seen hanging out with Matthews and other Leafs like William Nylander and Mitch Marner. Bieber's drew house clothing company designed this year's NHL All-Star sweaters and it brought a rare thrill factor to the league that almost rivals the NBA's collectible custom jerseys.

That factor went way up on Thursday night (Feb. 1), when Bieber played an invitation-only 2,500-capacity concert History of the space, his first concert in a year. Diplo, The Kid Laroi and Nelly Furtado also played concerts over the weekend, but it was Bieber's who grabbed the most headlines and social media attention in a career-spanning set.

“This is a guy who is 100 percent all in on the Toronto Maple Leafs,” Mayer says. “Of course we'll want to work with him in any way we can.”

“There's a good old saying: rock stars want to be athletes, athletes want to be rock stars,” says Mayer. “And we're taking advantage of that. When they get here, and they're around these athletes, especially the ones they really admire, they become fans.”

This story originally appeared on Billboard Canada.