Bryan Adams Releases 'Lake Ontario,' a Song Criticizing Trump's Lake Renaming and Epstein Files

Canadian rock singer Bryan Adams, 66, released a new song, "Lake Ontario," on Wednesday that targets President Donald Trump's August executive order directing US federal agencies to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America." The lyrics do not name Trump but describe an unnamed man who renames the lake, accuses him of breaking the peace among people living along its shores, and call the move a distraction from the war in Iran and from growing attention on the Jeffrey Epstein files. A video accompanied the release, and the song comes from the album How's It Goin', due next month. It follows "51st State," released on Canada Day in response to Trump's talk of annexing Canada. In a statement, Adams said empires and leaders pass while the lake endures. The lyrics note the Iroquois name for the lake, meaning lake of shining waters. Trump's order echoed his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, and it has largely been met with derision in Canada, whose province of Ontario is named for the lake. The Justice Department published Epstein court records on January 30.

The Daily Mail, on the right, leads with backlash, saying social media users went after Adams for getting political. It stresses his age, prints the verse about a baby tossing toys from the pram and the Epstein lines, and its headline uses the word "woke." The Guardian US, on the left, frames the song as a playful jab and a love letter to Canada. It adds the lake's historical names, Canadian mockery of the order, and the strain on US-Canada relations. Both note the Iran and Epstein references and the August order. Slate's piece is a podcast on House Judiciary Democrats' Epstein report, with no mention of Adams. Stereogum is similar to the Guardian in tone; France 24 covers only Epstein.