diff --git a/google/cloud/spanner_dbapi/parse_utils.py b/google/cloud/spanner_dbapi/parse_utils.py
index 1744874764..aa0e12d75d 100644
--- a/google/cloud/spanner_dbapi/parse_utils.py
+++ b/google/cloud/spanner_dbapi/parse_utils.py
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@
 STMT_INSERT = "INSERT"
 
 # Heuristic for identifying statements that don't need to be run as updates.
-RE_NON_UPDATE = re.compile(r"^\s*(SELECT)", re.IGNORECASE)
+RE_NON_UPDATE = re.compile(r"^\W*(SELECT)", re.IGNORECASE)
 
 RE_WITH = re.compile(r"^\s*(WITH)", re.IGNORECASE)
 
diff --git a/tests/unit/spanner_dbapi/test_parse_utils.py b/tests/unit/spanner_dbapi/test_parse_utils.py
index 11239d730e..4de429076e 100644
--- a/tests/unit/spanner_dbapi/test_parse_utils.py
+++ b/tests/unit/spanner_dbapi/test_parse_utils.py
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ def test_classify_stmt(self):
         cases = (
             ("SELECT 1", STMT_NON_UPDATING),
             ("SELECT s.SongName FROM Songs AS s", STMT_NON_UPDATING),
+            ("(SELECT s.SongName FROM Songs AS s)", STMT_NON_UPDATING),
             (
                 "WITH sq AS (SELECT SchoolID FROM Roster) SELECT * from sq",
                 STMT_NON_UPDATING,