Why was Rene Simard's Montreal Olympics 1976 theme song boycotted?

Answer 1

According to Sports Illustrated Magazine, March 8, 1976: "...Canadians have failed to respond to the 'official' Olympic Games welcoming song. Recorded by a teen-age singing sensation named René Simard, whose records usually sell in the hundreds of thousands in Canada, Bienvenue à Montréal (Welcome to Montreal) has been a bomb. Miffed by this is André Morin, whose title is director general of official ceremonies. 'We could sell millions of records,' he says, 'but it must be played over the air. The press and the radio don't want it on the air because of their personal evaluation of the song.' A Montreal radio station confirms this, but insists that its refusal to play Welcome to Montreal is actually an effort to help the Olympics. The song, it says, is both unimaginative and overpromotional, and because there is so much cynicism already about the Olympics, 'playing the song might turn a lot of people off.'"