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Bruce Springsteen took the stage toward the end of the Obama Presidential Center’s opening ceremony, following a moving speech from President Obama and performances from Eddie Vedder, John Legend, U2’s Bono and The Edge, Christina Aguilera and many others. He performed his 1999 song “Land of Hope and Dreams,” which served as the leitmotif of his recent politically charged tour with the E Street Band.
“I’m so happy to be here this afternoon – for President Obama, Michelle, Malia and Sasha,” he said. “You know how much I love you all. ‘Oh, what a glorious task it is to work ceaselessly to improve this great nation.’ This is from President Obama’s speech in Selma. President Obama and Michelle, you have lived this ideal with heart, commitment, love and compassion. This is ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’. This is for you.”
Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama have a relationship that goes back almost two decades – to the 2008 election campaign. During the heated phase, Springsteen gave speeches and played songs at several Obama rallies. “I think he understands in his heart the cost of that distance – in blood and suffering, in the lives of ordinary Americans,” Springsteen said at an event in Philadelphia. “And I am confident that as president he would work to restore that promise to so many of our fellow citizens who have rightly lost faith in its meaning. After the disastrous eight years of the last administration, we need someone to lead us in an American rebuilding project.”
Together since 2008
After Obama was elected, Springsteen agreed to perform at the We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial, just two days before the inauguration. He was on stage there with Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, U2, James Taylor, Shakira, Stevie Wonder, Garth Brooks and numerous other stars. Springsteen opened the show early with “The Rising” along with the Joyce Garrett Singers and returned near the end to sing “This Land Is Your Land” with Pete Seeger and Tao Rodríguez-Seeger.
Eight years later, almost to the day, Springsteen gave a private concert at the White House for Obama and his closest aides in the East Room. The solo acoustic show he put together – featuring a rare live version of “My Father’s House” and a duet with Patti Scialfa on “Tougher Than the Rest” – became the framework for Springsteen’s one-man Broadway show later that year.
Springsteen and Obama remained in close contact even after President Donald Trump took office. In 2021 they launched the eight-part podcast “Renegades: Born in the USA”, which was published as a book that same year. “I’m teasing Bruce about this because I don’t understand why a kid from New Jersey considers himself an outsider,” Obama told “CBS This Morning” at the book promotion. “I’m the outsider. It’s easy to see why Barack Obama is an outsider. What I think we both had in common was that we asked ourselves: How do we fit into existing history? How do we fit into the communities we were born into?”