Why Barenaked Ladies are singing Canadian national anthem in NFL first

Josh Allen is the main attraction as the Bills open their new stadium on Thursday night, but he isn't the only form of entertainment on hand for the Buffalo faithful.

While OneRepublic will be performing at halftime for the crowd, fans will hear a performance of the Canadian national anthem from rock band Barenaked Ladies.

The Canadian band once threw out the first pitch at a Blue Jays game north of the border, but they are headed just south of the border to help ring in $2.1 billion Highmark Stadium as the Bills host the Lions.

Here's what you need to know about the band and their performance.

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Why Barenaked Ladies are singing Canadian national anthem

For the first time, the Bills will play "O Canada" before their home game despite the NFL not having any Canadian teams. That's something the NHL's Buffalo Sabres, who are also owned by Terry Pegula, already do regardless of whether a Canadian team is playing.

Buffalo sits just across the Niagara River from Canada, so the franchise has devoted itself to building a Canadian fan base over the years. Those efforts included games in Toronto during the late 2000s and early 2010s.

With tensions palpable between the U.S. and Canada due to trade disputes, the Bills appear to be extending an olive branch to their neighbors to the north (and west) as they open their new stadium.

So, why the Barenaked Ladies? The band is Canadian, after all, hailing from the Toronto suburbs, and they are one of the top Canadian bands to break through in the United States as well, giving some crossover appeal with a predominantly American audience watching at home.

Here's more to know about the Barenaked Ladies.

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Who are the Barenaked Ladies?

The Barenaked Ladies are an alternative rockband that was formed by Ed Robertson and Steven Page in 1988. Robertson remains the band's lead singer.

The band gained popularity in Canada in the early-to-mid 1990s and started to develop an American audience in the late 1990s. Barenaked Ladies' 1998 album "Stunt" featured hit single "One Week," which remains the band's most recognizable song.

As for their name, it came about while Robertson and Page attended a Bob Dylan concert in 1988, Page told the Los Angeles Times in 1992.

"We sat there and talked about all these fake bands we'd like to be in, and started coming up with dumb names for them. I don't know which of us said 'Barenaked Ladies,' but we laughed our heads off," Page said. "It's something we'd say when we were 9 or 10 years old, a phrase we'd forgotten, so it was charming when it popped back up."

When it came time to form a band, the name was brought up again and stuck. True to their name, Barenaked Ladies regularly incorporates humor into their songs and performances.

Despite developing an American audience, the Barenaked Ladies remain popular in Canada and were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2018. The band is still active, having released a new song earlier this year.

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Where are the Barenaked Ladies from?

The Barenaked Ladies were formed in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, a northwest suburb of Toronto. Both Robertson and Page are originally from Scarborough, and three of the four current members are from Scarborough; all are Canadian. 

Barenaked Ladies most popular songs

The Barenaked Ladies' most popular song remains "One Week," which reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1998. Despite being released 28 years ago, it has been streamed on Spotify over four times more than any other song by the band.

"If I had $1,000,000," released in 1992, is also one of the band's most memorable hits, incorporating humor into the lyrics, while 2000 single "Pinch Me" was nominated for a Grammy Award.

2013 single "Odds Are" stands as one of Barenaked Ladies' most popular modern songs, but they might be best known by some as the singers of the "Big Bang Theory" theme song that plays at the start of episodes.