Sports

Aboriginal fans' Edmonton Oilers song becomes an anthem

by Jesse Locke

After missing 37 games with a broken collarbone, the Edmonton Oilers’ star rookie Connor McDavid raced back to the ice on February 2 to score a huge goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

To celebrate his triumphant return, the Logan Alexis Singers (a traditional music group from the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, near Edmonton) performed their original Oilers song outside of Rexall Place. Now, a video of their drum-pounding anthem has blown up online.

The anthemic song includes the following lyrics: “Let’s go back to the good old days! Let’s go back to the Gretzky days! Go Oilers! Go! You can do it! You’ve got Connor McDavid, Nuge, Ebs and Hall!” Watch it from a few different angles below:

“In our tradition, it’s an honour to have songs made about you,” performer Robin Alexis told the CBC. “You’ve got to be a pretty important person to have songs. Nobody made a song about me, and I’ve been singing for 35 years of my life. McDavid has a song, and I don’t?”

After originally posting the video on Tuesday night, Evan Chamakese has seen it shared over 400,000 times thanks to coverage on radio stations, Global Edmonton, CBC, and TSN.

“Thanks for sharing and for all the positive feedback everyone!” Chamakese said in a follow-up post. “My daughter Ava just became the biggest Connor McDavid fan!! Before I dropped her off last night, I told her to always BE PROUD of who she is and where she comes from, to always be proud when you hear those DRUMS, but most importantly to always be proud to be an OILERS fan!! Hiy hiy Logan Alexis Singers for allowing me to record and share. Hope to see you guys at center ice singing the new OILERS ANTHEM very soon!!”