Bruce Springsteen performed ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’ and honored former President Barack Obama in a speech at the Obama Presidential Center opening ceremony in Chicago
Bruce Springsteen paid tribute to former US President Barack Obama by citing his words at the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center.
The museum honoring Obama’s presidency marked its official launch with a star-studded celebration on Thursday, June 18, in Chicago, Illinois. Among the performers was the iconic 76-year-old rocker, joined by notable artists including Stevie Wonder, Eddie Vedder, Christina Aguilera, John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, and many more.
A host of prominent celebrities were also present at the event, among them Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson, LL Cool J, Stephen Colbert, Gabrielle Union, Quinta Brunson, Steven Spielberg, and others. Bruce took to the stage to perform his 1999 classic, Land of Hope and Dreams, shortly before Stevie Wonder’s set near the ceremony’s close, delivering a brief address in which he referenced Obama’s own words.
The song also served as the namesake for his recent North American tour with his backing band, the E Street Band. The politically-charged tour was conceived as a direct response to President Donald Trump and his current administration.
“I’m so glad to be here this afternoon for President Obama, and Michelle, Malia, Sasha,” he told the crowd at the opening ceremony. “You know how I love you all. ‘Oh, what a glorious task we are given to continuously strive to improve this great nation of ours.’ That was from President Obama’s speech in Selma.”
Bruce referenced a line from Obama’s 2015 speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches(Image: AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
“President Obama and Michelle, you have exemplified that ideal with lives that have served us all with heart and commitment and love and compassion. This is ‘Land of Hope and Dreams.’ This is for you,” Bruce added.
On March 7, 2015, Obama gave a speech at Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, marking the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches. The marches consisted of three separate demonstrations that took place in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama, organized to demand voting rights for Black Americans, which were being denied by “the systematic racist structure of the Jim Crow South,” according to the National Archives.
The New Jersey-born musician has consistently backed Obama. Throughout the 64-year-old’s initial presidential run in 2008, Bruce appeared at campaign events and delivered speeches.
Bruce and Obama are good friends(Image: AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
He also took the stage at the We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial just days prior to Obama’s inauguration that year.
“He speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that’s interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where ‘… nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone,'” Bruce wrote about Obama in a letter published on his website in April 2008 as he endorsed him, according to The Guardian.
The lyrics Bruce referenced in his endorsement came from his 2007 track ‘Long Walk Home.’
Bruce is a vocal critic of Donald Trump(Image: AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Springsteen continued his backing of Obama throughout his second term in office. Shortly before Obama’s departure from the White House, Bruce staged an intimate concert for the outgoing president and his staff in the East Room on January 12, 2017.
The two have also sustained a close friendship over the years. In 2021, Bruce and Obama joined forces to launch an eight-part podcast, Renegades: Born in the USA, which was subsequently adapted into a book later that same year.
This stands in stark contrast to Bruce’s stance on Trump, whom he has been an outspoken critic of.