Bruce Springsteen electrifies his French audience and becomes a herald of resistance to Trump

Is this, from the outset, a snub to Trump? Barely having arrived on stage at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium, Bruce Springsteen, elegant in jacket and tie, greets the 60,000 spectators in the audience, grabs his Telecaster and launches into a fiery version of "No Surrender", a song from his cult 1984 album "Born In The USA". The lyrics resonate differently forty years later: "We made a promise that we swore to always remember/We're not backing down, we're not surrendering." He continues with "Land of Hope and Dreams", the song he performed at the inauguration of President Joe Biden in 2021, having just a few months earlier defeated the Mar-A-Lago billionaire. This could be just a coincidence... Except that in recent days, the exchanges between the American president and the rock icon have multiplied. One of the latest? Trump, who, with his well-known elegance, describes his detractor as a "dried-up old prune (with wrinkled skin)" .

The disagreement between the two septuagenarians is nothing new. In 2016, the then-recent Republican candidate with a peroxide-laced lock of hair sparked hostilities by using, without the artist's consent, the famous "Born in the USA" during his rallies. Was the "make America great again" champion the only American who hadn't understood that the legendary song is anything but an anthem to the glory of America? Springsteen wrote his hit in 1982 to denounce the ravages of the Vietnam War, the deaths on both sides, and the veterans shattered by post-traumatic stress. Ironically, Ronald Reagan—Trump's self-proclaimed role model and father of the "MAGA" slogan—was already playing "Born in the USA" during his 1984 reelection campaign, the year the song was released. He was the first in a long line to attempt to transform the pamphlet into a patriotic anthem. In vain.

While independent Senator Bernie Sanders crisscrosses the land of Uncle Sam to denounce the clan of billionaires who have taken over the American administration, Bruce Springsteen takes advantage of his formidable audience every night to become the spokesperson for the resistance to Trump around the world. In Lille, the list of songs that the Boss chose to perform has all the hallmarks of a political manifesto: "Death to my Hometown," "Hungry Heart," "Long Walk Home." Full of irony, he dedicates "Rainmaker" to "our dear leader ." The lyrics of the song, written in 2020, leave little room for doubt as to the recipient: "Sometimes people need something so badly to believe in/That they hire a rainmaker."

Donald Trump's America is nothing like the "Promised Land" described by Springsteen in 1978 on the sublime album "Darkness on the Edge of Town," which he performed tonight with the 16 musicians and backing vocalists of the E Street Band before descending into the pit to greet his fans, fist raised. Since the ultraconservative billionaire's return to Washington, each day has brought its share of liberticidal decrees aimed at barricading a nation that once claimed to be the land of all possibilities. The New Jersey star is well aware of this when, at the start of the show, he launches this diatribe at the Oval Office tenant:

When the Boss returned to the stage at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium to begin his encore, it was a barrage of hits. "Born in the USA," "Born to Run," "Bobby Jean," "Dancing in the Dark"... The crowd was on fire, the stands were on their feet. The concert ended on a note, once again, of commitment. A cover of an idol (and friend) of Springsteen, the protest song par excellence: "Chimes of Freedom" by Bob Dylan. A 1964 track written in solidarity with the oppressed, the excluded.

Through Trump and Springsteen, two visions of America collide. The artist with 400 songs and 2,900 concerts has been telling the story of his country for over fifty years. Everything that makes America. The deserts of Utah, the backwaters of Nebraska; the workers sleeping in their cars, the forgotten ones of the American dream. Springsteen speaks to Americans, from the wealthy of the West Coast to the white trash of the Rust Belt. The Boss's songs will remain. The decrees of the current American president will be undone, let's hope, by the next administration.