A day after a crowd greeted her singing with loud boos, a singer-songwriter from Port Moody, B.C., is expressing deep gratitude for the support and well-wishes that followed her appearance at a Vancouver Canucks home game.
It was the biggest performance of her fledgling career and Agasha Mutesasira had already steeled herself for one of the most challenging situations an entertainer can encounter: booing from the very audience she was there to serenade, but the Canucks staff and her supporters had already warned her to expect just that.
The Sunday night game at Rogers Arena followed booing during the Star Spangled Banner in Ottawa, Calgary, and Toronto during NHL and NBA games where Canadian fans expressed their feelings toward proposed U.S. tariffs and a pending trade war.
“I understand where that frustration comes through and why the booing happened, so it’s not personal one little bit,” said Mutesasira, in a one-on-one interview with CTV News. “I had some people who did come to me and confess that they did boo but they did appreciate my performance.”
A year or so into her career as a singer-songwriter, she sees the experience as a trial by fire and that it’s made her a more resilient performer. Sitting in the wheelchair that’s been part of her life since she survived a spinal cord tumour in 2012, Mutesasira’s rendition of “O Canada” was greeted with cheers by the crowd.
CTV News reached out to the NHL to see how they plan to address the booing in Canadian cities going forward, but no one has responded.For her part, Mutesasira considers performing in front of thousands of fans at Rogers Arena – and countless more through the broadcast – as an overwhelmingly positive experience because it’s not just about a personal career highlight.
“I’m someone that represents people in the disabled community,” she said. “I feel like just having that visualization as an artist that is trying to navigate this industry – (one) that is not always accessible – having an opportunity like this on such a big scale is so important and like shows that we’re artists just like everybody else.”
