Every campaign needs a catchy theme song. It captures the spirit of a campaign and can rally supporters — or at the very least get stuck in their heads.
But now the Liberal Party of Canada has announced it will re-record the French-language version of their campaign song “One Hand Up,” after astute social media users noticed that the French translation was less than perfect.
The song was recorded by Canadian band the Strumbellas on their 2019 album “Rattlesnake.” For the uninitiated, the Strumbellas are the kind of band whose music scores Apple commercials or teen movies about finding your voice or breaking out of your shell.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau shared both versions of the song on his personal Twitter account.
📣 Volume up! Check out our official campaign song by @thestrumbellas! pic.twitter.com/BQto4riyqL
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) September 15, 2019
📣Montez le son pour écouter notre chanson officielle de la campagne par @thestrumbellas! pic.twitter.com/3xkjHoDOQS
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) September 15, 2019
However, the Strumbellas, apparently, are not francophones. According to the band, they hired someone to do the French translation of the song for the campaign. But there were a few key mistakes.
Most notably, the lyric “we can hold one hand up for tomorrow. We can hold one hand up to the stars” in French translates as: “On lève une main haute pour demain. On lève une main haute aux étoiles.”
But instead of “on lève,” which means “we raise,” French-speaking Twitter users pointed out that the song uses “enlève,” which means to remove.
So basically, the song is saying to “remove one hand.” Sounds like a bad Google translate. And people took notice.
Est-ce vraiment le Qc qui, comme les analystes le disent, va trancher pour votre réélection ? C'est parce qu'en plus de bafouer la belle langue française, ce texte ne fait aucun sens. #ontournelepouceenbas 🎶🎵
— Danièle Dumont (@Dumiele1) September 15, 2019
Google Translate ne chante pas. Je répète, Google Translate ne chante pas.
— Lyne Labrèche (@LyneLabreche) September 15, 2019
Even Quebec Liberal Party legislator Gaétan Barrette called out the horrible translation.
Je l'ai écoutée une quinzaine de fois et j'ai pas encore compris toutes les paroles!!! C'est quoi ça "enlevez une main haute..."? Ben c'est une très mauvaise traduction française. Très, très, très gênant!!! #polqc#cdnpoli#AssNat#PLQhttps://t.co/YkeXw5uJyS
— Dr Gaétan Barrette (@drgbarrette) September 15, 2019
In a statement posted to Twitter, the Strumbellas apologized for the error.
Our statement on @JustinTrudeau using "One Hand Up" as his campaign song: pic.twitter.com/ilUMkRJIe1
— The Strumbellas (@thestrumbellas) September 16, 2019
The Liberals say the group plans to re-record the song with better lyrics.
The Summer of 2019
The Liberal Party isn’t the only one with a big-ticket campaign song. The Conservatives launched theirs last week, penned by the same songwriter who helped Bryan Adams write “Summer of ’69.” But instead of getting your first real six-string and playing it til your fingers bleed, it’s a more of a “stomp and clap at a sports arena vibe.” Take a listen:
The Tories opted not to release a full French-language version, but did share a bilingual version with French lyrics for the second and last verses.
“We Are The Greens”
The Greens haven’t released a formal campaign song yet, but hinted at one during a rally in Victoria last week. During a video taping of the song, the party’s Vancouver Island candidates took to the stage to sing “We Are The Greens,” which, as expected, talked a lot about centrism, stopping pipelines and a Green New Deal.
The highlight though? Nanaimo-Ladysmith candidate Paul Manly on electric bass. Gotta admit, he can rock it.

The NDP haven’t released a formal campaign song yet, but if they do you can bet it’ll probably be accompanied by a custom Jagmeet Singh dance.
Watch: Jagmeet Singh celebrates byelection win
UPDATE: This story has been updated with a statement from the Strumbellas.
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