For decades now, I have known and worked with Bryan Adams on a variety of photography and publishing projects, including countless covers and editorials for this magazine – photography has been an ongoing, award-winning alternate career for the iconic Kingston, Ont.-born musician. It will then come as no surprise that my most Canadian-coded moments have come through this collaboration. Like the time I had the honour of giving the onstage tribute for his induction into The Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards at The National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Or, again in Ottawa – on a break from set – when I had the privilege of accompanying him to Rideau Hall for an intimate ceremony where the Governor General upgraded his Order of Canada to the highest designation. And that time I engineered a photo shoot backstage at the Junos, where in between his hosting duties, he took portraits of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the Royal Ontario Museum exhibition, Canadians by Bryan Adams, to mark Canada 150. Then there was the day I witnessed B.C’s Pamela Anderson, wrapped in a cashmere blanket fashioned like the Maple Leaf (which I had secured from Toronto’s Chanel boutique), frolicking on an L.A. street as Adams photographed her for a book, Made In Canada, to mark the 20th anniversary of the magazine I edited at the time, and to benefit the Canadian Breast Cancer Society.
Canadians have been in an elbow’s-up stance since November 2024, when President Donald Trump started suggesting that we should be the U.S.’s 51 state while levying tariffs and other threats against our sovereignty. When Adams told me he was releasing a new song, 51st State, on Canada Day, as “a tribute to the pride and spirit of my fellow Canadians” – and given the True North sentiment in the zeitgeist – it felt like a full-circle moment. And I asked him for an interview. He agreed, and I caught up with him via screens in his hotel room in Sicily, where he would be performing that night in the ruins of an amphitheatre.
Zoomer: Well, nice to see you, Bryan.
Bryan Adams: You too.
Z: Have you been watching the World Cup?
BA: Of course.
Z: Did you watch the game, Canada vs South Africa, yesterday?
BA: Sure did. Canada’s in the [knockouts], who would’ve thought it? But it’s brilliant.
Z: How did you feel during the second half hydration break when Summer of ’69 was played?
BA: I didn’t notice that.
Z: You didn’t? How is that possible?
BA: No, it was only after the fact that someone told me about it. I wasn’t watching it on television. I was watching it on the internet. So it was like, you know, they throw a bunch of commercials on it.
Z: Right. Well, you know, those chords just stand out so much. It got me thinking that your music is such a part of Canadiana, but you don’t really write a lot about Canada – except for a song like Alberta Bound. So the 51st State song is a bit of a departure in that you’re focusing on Canada as a place and a nation.
BA: And it is actually part of a series of songs that are going to be coming out about Canada. It was inspired by a German documentary coming out next year I was asked to write for on the Maritimes. They wanted a Canadian to write a song for it, and so I got asked to do it and I thought, “Yeah, that could be cool.” And I just sat down and this song came out.
Z: And was that song 51st State?
BA: No, it was the song for the documentary. And then as I finished that, I thought, “I’ve gone through a whole bunch of research because I wanted to make sure I had my facts right before I got into it.” And then, about a day later, I went back and looked at my research and started working on another idea as a sort of backup, in case the other song was rejected. So now I had two songs.
Z: Wow.
BA: I’d gone off on a tangent and started into different things like, where was the railroad first started? And more about Newfoundland and Labrador and thinking and talking about all these places. Now suddenly I was inspired to write a third song. So, I’ve got three songs, then I thought, “You know what, maybe I should write an album about Canada.”
Z: Okay, so are we talking about a new body of work?
BA: Yes, a Canada album which hopefully will be released in September or October.
Z: You did all this research, but you’ve been a touring musician since you were a teenager – and you’ve probably travelled in Canada more than most. Have you been to every single province? To Nunavut?
BA: No, and I haven’t been to the Northwest Territories and I haven’t been to Labrador. But, you know, I’ve been to The Grand Banks [in Newfoundland]. I’ve been as far east as you can get and as far west as you can get.
Z: Exactly. So I feel like you’re more qualified than most to write about it?
BA: Well, I don’t know that you have to be qualified. You just have to be Canadian – but that’s kind of you to say. All the research that I’d done had been more territorial as opposed to the historic. So I started venturing into that, more about the railroad and things about the Gold Rush. And then I thought, I need to write something more current. And the first thing that came to my mind was the notion that had been talked about, a 51st state. And I thought, ‘I’m gonna write about that.’ And so I just dug in.
Z: Shortly after all that “talk” started, you were on tour in the States in March 2025, and you spoke about it on stage in Oklahoma, saying as Canadians “we feel a little intimidated. We’ve got to be honest, alright? We love you guys a lot. But I’m not sure that I love you that much that I want to become you, okay?” So you’ve been thinking about the 51st State issue since then, I take it?
BA: I forgot that I’d done that, actually. Thanks for reminding me.
Z: I think you were dug in on it pretty early because you did make that statement. Now in the lead-up to Canada Day, I see that you posted about the song and Linda Evangelista commented: “Don’t poke the bear.”
BA: Yeah. But she also sent another one saying fire, with four or five stars.
Z: I think that it’s kind of funny because the thing with a personality like that person’s …
BA: You mean: he that shall be unnamed?
Z: Yeah. The Voldemort of geopolitics. I guess you have an interest in geopolitics from when you were a kid – and you travelled the world with your father who was an army diplomat – growing up in Portugal and Jordan. So current and world events have always been in your experience, right?
BA: With that kind of upbringing, it entices you to ask questions and be involved. I mean, it’s inevitable when you have a multicultural school and classmates that are different ethnicities. You start to wonder about other things? You know, whether it’s as simple as different types of food, you know, or how is it that the Romans got as far as they did? Whatever it might be.
Z: So tell me a bit more about the song 51st State. You have so many great summer jams and a song that’s synonymous with the season. When I first heard this one, it felt upbeat and happy, even though it’s about a serious topic. So what did you want the message to be – with the lyrics but also with the feel and the vibe of it?
BA: It’s pretty clear, we just don’t wanna be part of that, thanks very much. For us, that whole thought is just noise.
Z: And making it upbeat?
BA: I don’t know if it was a conscious decision to make the song one way or another, but it just turned out that way. It was just decidedly upbeat from the moment that it started.
Z: Because we’re happy to be Canadian.
BA: That’s it.
“Awesome, just awesome”
– Prime Minister Mark Carney’s response when Adams’ sent him the new song, 51st State
Z: In March this year, Prime Minister Mark Carney posted a video of himself jogging in London’s Hyde Park with the president of Finland with Summer of ‘69 as the added audio. Are you going to send 51st State to the Prime Minister?
BA: I already have.
Z: Did he respond?
BA: He wrote back, “Awesome, just awesome.”
Z: How do you think people will receive the song?
BA: Well, so far so good. I mean, as we’re talking it’s two days out and I’m really excited for it to come out. This will be the most significant Canada Day and I really wanted to get this out for it. That was the impetus.
Z: What do you think are the most Canadian things about you?
BA: My studio in Gastown. I love my studio.
Z: The Warehouse Studio, it’s a heritage building. Is that why it’s so Canadian?
BA: Yeah. It’s part of Vancouver’s history. And it was salvaged from the wreckage.
Z: What was it before you transformed it?
BA: It was a number of things. Originally it was built for the Gold Rush as a sort of dispensary and a grocery store where you could buy pickles and cigars and things like that. I’ve got an old receipt from it – it’s framed and on the studio wall. I’m really, really proud to have saved that bit of Canada. To have the oldest brick building in the city is kind of nice. But, I mean, so many things. I don’t identify as anything really. I kind of think of myself as a citizen of the world. But, you know, I’m very proud to pull out my Canadian passport.
Z: Right, so you are a patriotic soul anyway.
BA: Yeah. I’m not jingoistic though.
Z: But in a way that’s very Canadian, feeling like you are a citizen of the world and part of it. It’s like what Mark Carney has been talking about – let’s experience the whole world.
BA: Exactly.
Z: Why have we been married to one thing? I think it’s such a fresh approach.
BA: Yeah. And he’s right. He’s a man of the world, too.
Z: Right after 9/11, then U.S. president George W. Bush gave the “Axis of Evil” speech to Congress in which he thanked all the allies, but failed to mention Canada, despite how we rallied behind them and Gander.
BA: That’s outrageous.
Z: And it made me think of this lyric from the new song, “Maybe you’ve forgotten – maybe you just don’t care / But we always stood beside you – for that liberty we share.” And it’s really all about another lyric in the chorus, ”When you’re talking about my home you better show some respect.”
BA: I agree, but I end it with the line: “You’re welcome across the border. But we’ll never be the 51st state.”
Z: So it’s actually an open hand to America. Like we’re still friends, but you can’t be a bully.
BA: Well, you can be whatever you wanna, but you know, show some respect.
Z: What’s your favorite thing about America?
BA: I like America. It’s a great place to tour. It’s always been very good to me. I mean, it’s different than Canada, there’s no question about it. But I don’t have any problem. It’s pretty simple, isn’t it, we’re friends, you know? Let’s keep it that way.
This story has been updated since publication.
