Christopher Cross Uses Canada Stage to Blast Trump, Jokes About Getting ‘Ejected’ From America

At a Toronto concert, the “Sailing” singer apologized to Canadian fans, urging them not to “give up on us”

Christopher Cross performs at Pine Knob Music Theatre on August 29, 2026 in Clarkston, Michigan.

Christopher Cross apologized to Canadians at Toronto’s RBC Amphitheatre Sunday night, the venue on the banks of recently ballyhooed Lake Ontario, calling President Trump “an asshole” and urging the crowd to not “give up on us.”

The “Sailing” singer didn’t have to get into any detail. Trump recently signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” imposed a 50 percent tariff on $20 billion of Canadian goods after the collapse of trade negotiations, called Canadian officials “nasty people,” and Canada “one of the worst countries in the world to deal with.”

Cross didn’t mention the lake-naming — or that the venue hosting the night‘s headliners, Toto, butts the actual Lake Ontario — but the Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, best known for yacht rock classics like “Sailing,” “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” and “Ride Like the Wind,” made his feelings abundantly clear.

At the concert, Cross opened with his 2011 song “Dreamers,” which included a snippet of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. “It’s a recording from something quite famous in our country, but you may not know what it was, but it was a gentleman named Dr. Martin Luther King, speaking about civil rights,” Cross said from the stage. The audience responded in kind. “It represents a very dark time in my country, which is happening again.”

Each line he spoke was met with increasingly louder cheers. Cross continued: “I want to tell you that we love your country and appreciate your country very much. … I’m just very sorry and embarrassed that we have an asshole for a president. But don’t give up on us. We have an election coming up, and we’re going to do our best to fix it. … And then we’ll be buying all your shit again, and you’ll be buying all our shit again. [cheers] We can be victims of corporate greed together.“ (Several Canadian provinces and territories have banned the sale of U.S. liquor in response to American tariffs.)

“Alright, enough of my preaching here,” Cross said. “I’m sure you’ll be reading in the paper where I’ve been ejected from the country, but that’s okay. I wanted to say what I had to say.”

Watch his comments in full below:

Trump‘s war of words with America‘s neighbor to the north has been a source of much tension between the two nations, with Trump belittling Canada and suggesting it become the 51st state. As he approaches the two-year mark of his second term, he has been ramping up the rhetoric. On Saturday, he posted a bizarre AI-created video of himself as a Canada goose with an army of geese carrying machine guns set to the “Hawaii Five-O” theme song. At the end, the flock fires into the Toronto skyline. The caption read: “Lake America — Protected by Donald Ducks.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded with a social media post tracing the history of the name Lake Ontario to the Wendat word Ontari’io, stating its origin is “more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.” He added, “Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always.”

Cross is wrapping a 32-date North American tour with Toto. His 1980 hit, ”Ride Like the Wind,“ was featured prominently in the latest season of HBO‘s Euphoria.

Welcome to our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week, a Turnstile song gets the Elton John treatment, Erykah Badu and the Alchemist team up with Earl Sweatshirt for a soulful album highlight, and Natanael Cano gets the crowd on their feet with a corrido collab from his newest album. Plus, new songs from Billy Strings, Ice Spice, Olivia Rodrigo, Interpol, and Little Big Town.

Turnstile feat. Elton John, “Seein’ Stars: Elton John Version” (YouTube)

Natanael Cano, Gabito Ballesteros, Javier Rosas, “Nos Vamos De Dance” (YouTube)

Erykah Badu, The Alchemist, feat. Earl Sweatshirt “I Know That Man” (YouTube)

Billy Strings, “I Wish I Wanted To” (YouTube)

Ice Spice, Lil Yachty, “Out My Face (My Baby)” (YouTube)

Olivia Rodrigo, “Serena Joy” (YouTube)

AZ Chike feat. Tyler, the Creator, “Look Like My Mama” (YouTube)

Interpol, “Wings On Fire” (YouTube)

Alabama Shakes, “Time” (YouTube)

Sara Bareilles, “Just a Kid” (YouTube)

Prince, “Bestest Friend” (YouTube)

Flowerovlove “Debonair” (YouTube)

Little Big Town feat. Jason Isbell, “The Door” (YouTube)

Asher White, “White Castle Sad” (YouTube)

Ken Carson feat. Osamason, “Vamp City” (YouTube)

The Linda Lindas, “Everybody Told Me” (YouTube)

Mike D, “Make It Stop” (YouTube)

Alex Warren, “Wildchild” (YouTube)

ErisThePlanet feat. Rico Nasty, “8 Feet Tall” (YouTube)

Dahi feat. Kendrick Lamar, Amber Mark, “How to Pray” (YouTube)

Los Bitchos feat. Ambrose Kenny-Smith, “Holding Cell” (YouTube)

Liim, “Buttas On” (YouTube)

Todd Snider, “Solid Country Gold” (YouTube)

Imperial Teen, “All Over You” (YouTube)

Kam Franklin, “Pho For Breakfast” (YouTube)

Trim, “Get Hit” (YouTube)

Lex Walton, “Hipster Runoff” (YouTube)

Temper City, “Reverse Psychology” (YouTube)

The Olivia Tremor Control, “Advice From the Oceans” (YouTube)

The Prince Estate has released Timeless, a 10-track collection of rare and previously unreleased recordings that stretches from 1977 to 2016. Released Friday through The Prince Estate and Legacy Recordings, the compilation traces Prince’s career, with material rescued from his famously deep vault.

Timeless moves across almost the entirety of Prince’s recording career. The chronological tracklist begins with early material and travels through recordings from the ’80s, ’90s, 2000s and 2010s, ending with a live performance from 2016, the final year of his life.

The collection includes “Stone,” a previously unreleased track first unveiled in June. Written by Sandra St. Victor, Tom Hammer and Jules Van Even and recorded in 1995, the song offered an early glimpse of what was waiting inside the Vault.

Some of the other recordings reach much further back. “Tick Tick Bang” dates to 1981, while “Heaven” comes from 1985. The album also includes “The Guilty Ones,” recorded at Paisley Park in 2007 and now accompanied by an official video.

For longtime Prince fans, some of these recordings may sound familiar, as some portions of his expansive archive have circulated among collectors and bootleg traders for years. Timeless finally gives these songs an official release and, in many cases, a new place in the artist’s recorded legacy.

New York-based global IP platform Authentic Brands Group announced Thursday that it has acquired a 51% stake in October's Very Own’s intellectual property, effectively handing the company majority control of the Toronto-founded fashion and lifestyle brand. Superstar Canadian rapper Drake retains 44 percent, while Vince Holding Corp. owns the remaining 5 percent and has acquired OVO’s operating business.

Vince will handle the nuts and bolts of the business, including product development, merchandising, retail and design. The company also becomes OVO’s core apparel licensee, while Drake and his team will remain involved in the brand’s creative direction.

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Founded by Drake, Oliver El-Khatib and Noah “40” Shebib in 2008, OVO grew from a Toronto imprint into a global clothing operation, with 12 flagship stores and an online business serving customers internationally. Authentic says the partnership is intended to expand the brand into new markets, while Vince plans to use its retail and wholesale infrastructure to push OVO further into the U.S.

The transaction also comes with a sizeable paycheck. Transaction documents put the asset purchase price for OVO’s intellectual property at $117.65 million USD ($164 million CAD). The agreement also addresses OVO debt following a lawsuit filed this summer by lender Applied Real Intelligence over alleged loan-payment defaults.

A previous version of this article called Authentic Brands Group an investment company. It has been edited to accurately represent the fact they are an intellectual property platform.

The Linda Lindas are haunted by past conversations and existential advice on their latest single, “Everybody Told Me.” The song arrives with a Victorian-themed music video alongside the group’s third studio album, Gotta Get Out.

“‘Everybody Told Me’ is always so fun and magical to play, and it was also a really collaborative song to write,” the Linda Lindas’ Mila De La Garza said in a statement. “That back-and-forth environment brought out so many different ideas from all of us, which led to the call-and-response in the bridge and our first-ever fade-out ending.”

She added, “We really dove deep into our emo and sad vibes on a few songs on this record, and had a lot of fun with this one in particular. There was also a lot of spooky creative direction with the ghostly, Victorian feel of the music video — something we’ve never done before.”

Four years on from their debut album, appropriately titled Growing Up, the Linda Lindas have done just that. Their skills as musicians sharpened and expanded with each release, but it’s their songwriting that has transformed the most throughout their evolution. “We have felt very inspired at a time when routine and habits are easy to fall into,” the band told Line of Best Fit. “It was necessary to be inspired and try new things and reinvent and feel hope and all the joy in all those things – making art – in order not to feel crushed every day.”

The band’s live shows are only getting better, too. The Linda Lindas plan on spending the rest of their year on the road headlining a tour with support from the Rat Utopia Experiment, VIAL, Deux Visages, Adan Diaz, and Grace Bowers. They will also join Bleachers on a few of the band’s upcoming dates in September.

Elton John

Turnstile have released their all-star “reimagined” version of Never Enough, including Elton John’s take on the band’s “Seein’ Stars.”

The new version combines Turnstile’s uncharacteristically poppy single with John’s trademark piano twinkling, with singer Brendan Yates and John trading verses before their voices come together on the chorus:

In addition to John, Never Enough: Versions features new takes on the band’s Grammy-winning 2025 LP from artists like Hayley Williams (“Ceiling”), Slayyyter and Dying Fetus (both recorded their own spin on “Birds”), Four Tet (“Look Out for Me”), Faye Webster (“I Care”) and Panda Bear and Alex G, who each take on Never Enough’s closer “Magic Man.”

Also on the guest list are Oklou, Shabaka, fellow Baltimore native Dan Deacon, Porches, Floating Points, Brandon Woody, Chanel Beads, Angel Du$t, Nourished By Time, Rod Lee, Kettama, and Mustafa.

“Thank you to all these incredible artists and friends who helped make this so special,” the band wrote on social media upon the album’s release.

Some of the Never Enough: Versions contributing artists — Angel Du$t, Nourished by Time, Slayyyter, and Porches — will also take part in Turnstile’s Never Enough Tour Pt. 2, which brings a mini-festival to amphitheaters nationwide this September and October. The trek kicks off September 9 in Milwaukee and concludes a month later in Santa Ana, California on October 18.

Hear Turnstile’s original take on “Seein’ Stars” below: