{"id":872140,"date":"2026-06-16T22:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T22:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/872140\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T22:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T22:33:12","slug":"bruce-springsteen-talks-us-future-de-niro-anti-trump-tonys-intro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/872140\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Springsteen Talks US Future, De Niro Anti-Trump Tonys Intro"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBruce Springsteen<\/a> became the latest recipient of the Tribeca Festival\u2019s Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\n\tEver humble, though, the legendary musician didn\u2019t feel he was deserving of the honor, given to those who have used storytelling and the arts to enact change in their communities.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t even really consider myself an activist,\u201d he said during a talk with Bono<\/a> as part of the award presentation. \u201cI\u2019m a little embarrassed to get this award tonight, because I feel like at best I\u2019m a concerned citizen. And what do I do? I sing my songs; I say a few things and wish for the best; help folks out a little bit here and a little bit there. There\u2019s so many people that do so much more than I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLuckily fellow musician and activist Bono, who said he was there presenting the award \u201cas a fan pretending to be a friend,\u201d and Tribeca<\/a> co-founder Robert De Niro enthusiastically made their case for why Springsteen should receive this recognition, but more on that later.<\/p>\n

\n\tPast recipients of the Harry Belafonte Award include Stacey Abrams, Jane Fonda and Jasmine Crockett.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn recent months, Springsteen has spoken out repeatedly against President Donald J. Trump, and, in the wake of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti being fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minnesota earlier this year, he penned the song \u201cStreets of Minneapolis,\u201d<\/a> criticizing the Trump administration\u2019s ongoing immigration enforcement operations.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccepting the Belafonte honor, Springsteen dedicated it to \u201call the citizens of Minneapolis and Los Angeles and Portland who stood against the federal invasion of their cities this year. So I\u2019ll take this and keep this in their name.\u201d His comments reference cities where people were shot by federal immigration agents.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter telling a story he\u2019d heard from Belafonte about how Martin Luther King and members of the civil rights movement tried to find a way to work with Robert F. Kennedy when he was appointed attorney general, Bono asked Springsteen \u2014\u00a0in keeping with how he\u2019d heard King ask for \u201cone good thing about that soul, because that one thing is the door through which our movement will pass\u201d \u2014\u00a0\u201cWhat\u2019s the one good thing we\u2019re going to find here, too, so people can get back to being neighbors and in a neighborhood and not such a divided America?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Springsteen quickly said he didn\u2019t know the answer to that question, he acknowledged the divisive climate in the country and shared his view of the United States ahead of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a philosophy that might provide a path forward.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAmerica is a sacred argument,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople aren\u2019t supposed to be in agreement with each other all the time in the first place. [America] was born in disagreement. It\u2019s a blessed, sacred argument that you\u2019re supposed to be having every day with your fellow citizens and with your representatives. So that\u2019s just a part of the country that\u2019s embedded in the country itself. The key to that is you have that argument while recognizing each other\u2019s common humanity and dignity. That is in short supply at the moment, from obviously the top of our administration on down, you know, but it\u2019s through that argument and through that recognition of your fellow citizens, your brothers and your sisters and your neighbors, that\u2019s where you find a common narrative. It\u2019s very difficult for a country to survive an attack without a common story it tells itself about itself, and so I think that\u2019s we\u2019re in a struggle for that today. I believe we\u2019re going to find that narrative, because I believe America renews itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Springsteen was limited in his comments about Trump onstage Saturday, De Niro, as usual, couldn\u2019t resist taking a few shots at the president.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c[Springsteen] knows what the problem is, and he names it: Donald Trump. Donald J. Trump and his feckless enablers\u201d De Niro said introducing Springsteen. \u201cThat\u2019s so important because this isn\u2019t about reasonable disputes on policy. This is about the corruption and megalomania of one person. Bruce Springsteen puts a face on it, and he does it with the words of a poet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpringsteen expressed his appreciation for De Niro\u2019s comments saying in part, \u201cNobody insults Trump better than Bob.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe thing I love the most is when Bob says Donald J. Trump,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe rocker, who received a Special Tony Award<\/a> for his Springsteen on Broadway show, recalled his side of De Niro\u2019s infamous introduction of his performance at the 2018 Tonys, when De Niro shouted \u201cFuck Trump\u201d on national TV<\/a> during the president\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n

\n\tRecalling how De Niro said he\u2019d introduce him, Springsteen said he was excited to have one of his \u201cheroes\u201d do the honors.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo we go to the show; I\u2019m backstage; Bob comes out, and I have this arrangement of \u2018My Hometown.\u2019 I\u2019m thinking this thing is going to kill everybody. There\u2019s not going to be a dry eye in the house or any living room in the United States when I\u2019m done with this,\u201d Springsteen said. \u201cI feel really good and really confident. Bob comes out and goes, \u2018Fuck Donald Trump, Bruce Springsteen.\u2019 It just fucked the whole thing up. I wanted to say, \u2018Bob, why did you do that?\u2019 You can\u2019t come out after somebody says \u2018Fuck Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIntroducing Springsteen, Bono recalled how Springsteen, Patti Smith, the Ramones and De Niro may have saved his life as a teenager. And he argued that Springsteen\u2019s lyrics reflect the cinematic approach America uses to tell its story.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCinema is where the American dream was encoded before it was exported, and what followed American cinema around the world? American music: Jazz, rhythm, blues, rock and roll breached every barrier, cracked open every wall. American music let freedom ring to people in Europe and Africa and Asia. \u2026 Bruce Springsteen is America,\u201d Bono said. \u201cBruce made poetry from the voices of the people and set that poetry to music. We honor him tonight as musician and poet, and as an activist and a patriot. And I would suggest that we honor him as a songster who\u2019s also been making cinema this whole time. \u2026 Bruce Springsteen may have become one of the most visible Americans on the planet Earth by never appearing in the widescreen cinema he so loved; he made his music widescreen instead. \u2026 Bruce is not television; he can do theater, but he is cinema. Lights go down, there he is, 124 frames a second, 124 times larger than life, surround sound, so from intimate whisper to bellicose roar a life turned up to 11, always cutting away to the guy in the corner, guy sitting alone, that\u2019s carrying something no one else can see, but Bruce can see it. Bruce can feel it. And more than that, Bruce can sing it, because in some ways Bruce is that guy in the corner. I once had the audacity to ask this great songwriter why he didn\u2019t write more about himself, and I received one of the few cross looks I\u2019ve had over the years from the only man I will ever call boss. I was 24, to be fair. He says, \u2018Why would anyone be interested in my life? I don\u2019t have much interest in writing about famous people. Infamous, maybe. I\u2019m more interested in the lives of the people we walk by and don\u2019t see. Why would anyone be interested in my life?\u2019 Good question to ask, sir, but an easy question for everyone in this room to answer. We are all more interested in you than we should be. We have seen the present and its name is Bruce Springsteen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter receiving the award, Bono and Springsteen welcomed Smith to the stage, where she performed \u201cPeaceable Kingdom\u201d before Smith, Bono and Springsteen joined together for a rousing performance of Smith\u2019s \u201cPeople Have the Power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSmith ended the song by telling the audience in Lower Manhattan, \u201cDon\u2019t forget it; use your voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpringsteen then stayed onstage for a rendition of \u201cLand of Hopes and Dreams,\u201d closing by saying, \u201cGod Bless America\u201d and, just hours before New York\u2019s NBA Finals victory, \u201cGo Knicks.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bruce Springsteen became the latest recipient of the Tribeca Festival\u2019s Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":872141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[61260,4580,171,975,80,43558,345191,7519,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-872140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-bono","tag-bruce-springsteen","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-politics","tag-tribeca","tag-tribeca-2026","tag-tribeca-festival","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116762168897123234","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}