Bruce Springsteen’s new anti-ICE anthem isn’t quite as bad as Paul McCartney’s ghastly post-9/11 anthem “Freedom.” Not quite. Still, he’s arguably done more than any other major artist to speak out against the Trump administration’s draconian policies, and maybe that’s enough.
“Streets of Minneapolis” — which Springsteen released on Wednesday, with a follow-up lyric video on Thursday — was met by cheers from his fans and anti-ICE protesters, and jeers from the MAGA faithful. But the four-and-a-half-minute song, chronicling the unprecedented, violent nationwide immigration raids and senseless deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, felt at last like something close to a universal rallying cry.
The four-and-a-half-minute song, chronicling the unprecedented, violent nationwide immigration raids and senseless deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, felt at last like something close to a universal rallying cry.
The title is a clear nod to his AIDS-era anthem “Streets of Philadelphia,” which won the 1994 Academy Award for best original song and garnered four Grammy Awards, including song of the year. In 24 hours, it gained more than three million views on YouTube and barely 200,000 streams on Spotify. And therein lies the problem.
Surely any fan of Springsteen — or frankly any fan of democracy — is applauding the fact that he is lending his considerable star power to the vicious deportation tactics and needless killings of two protestors at the hands of overzealous federal immigration officers. But it remains to be seen if the song has any staying power.
American protest music has a long and storied history, which Springsteen of course understands well. Just about everyone knows at least the first verse and the powerful refrain of Woody Guthrie’s timeless “This Land Is Your Land,” now more than 100 years old. In the modern age, Neil Young’s “Ohio,” penned in the immediate aftermath of the Kent State killings, has a timeless intensity to it. It’s a fantastic song and it still holds up more than 50 years later.
Meanwhile, Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane,” written to protest the dubious murder conviction of boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, engages the listener with an amazing narrative and has a hook that won’t quit. There’s reason this song has amassed nearly 300 million streams on Spotify in the streaming era, nearly a half century after Dylan wrote it.
More recently, John Legend’s and Common’s modern take on the Gospel spiritual, “Glory,” from the soundtrack to the film “Selma,” was a massive, genre-defying hit with universal appeal that won the Oscar for best original song at the 87th Academy Awards in 2015.
In 2026, if you don’t grab a listener in the first few seconds, they’re moving on. And “Streets of Minneapolis” just doesn’t grab me. The lyrics are clunky and the production is unsophisticated, presumably due to the fact that it was written and produced less than a week after Pretti’s death. “Ohio,” in comparison, came out a full month after four unarmed college students were killed during a Vietnam War rally.
“Now they say they’re here to uphold the law / But they trample on our rights / If your skin is Black or brown my friend / You can be questioned or deported on sight,” Springsteen sings in one of the better verses, before a harsh gang chorus and sampled chants of “ICE out of Minneapolis” — and a harmonica solo — kick in.
It’s not quite on par with McCartney’s dirge “Freedom,” but it’s hardly Springsteen at his best.
Still, maybe it doesn’t matter that “Streets of Minneapolis” will most likely be forgotten in a few days. Maybe, in fact, it’s exactly what we need right now.
Certainly, even if his political stance on current events is hardly a surprise, whatever Trump says, Springsteen is a major star, with serious clout, and he’s out there, putting his neck on the line when it matters most, while the Swifts, Carpenters and Drakes of the world remain disconcertingly silent. (That is, with the exception of Nikki Minaj, who recently appeared on stage with Erika Kirk, and just yesterday was seen hugging Mike Johnson at the White House.) Fortunately, there are at least some artists willing to follow Springsteen’s lead. U.K. musician and activist Billy Bragg released “City of Heroes” on Wednesday as well. A searing indictment of both Trump and complacency, Bragg’s anthem is a potent mix of a history lesson, news bulletin and condemnation of injustice. The song has already racked up nearly 50,000 views on YouTube, an impressive stat for an artist who’s barely known in America. “The murder of Alex Pretti was horrifically shocking, all the more so as we are still reeling from the images of the murder of Renee Good,” Bragg said in a press release. “That these crimes can be committed in broad daylight, on camera and yet no one is held accountable only adds to the injustice.” And on Thursday, the band My Morning Jacket released “Peacelands,” a 14-track album of original songs and exclusive covers, including renditions of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind,” the Velvet Underground’s “I Found a Reason” and Brian Wilson’s “Love and Mercy,” among others, with the proceeds earmarked to support the work of the ACLU, Doctors Without Borders and the International Rescue Committee. “We stand with the people of Minnesota and everywhere else affected by the horrors of ICE brutality and lack of human decency or transparency from this administration,” said My Morning Jacket’s frontman Jim James in a press release. Perhaps “Streets of Minneapolis,” coming out just ahead of Grammy weekend, will push more of Springsteen’s peers to leave their safe bubbles of complacency. I’d take even mediocre protest songs over the sounds of silence.
Jeff Slate
Jeff Slate is a New York City-based songwriter and journalist. His writing can be found at The New Yorker, Esquire, The Wall Street Journal and Rolling Stone, among others. He tweets at @jeffslate. 
“I wrote ‘City of Heroes’ as a tribute to the bravery of the people of Minneapolis, knowing that these trigger-happy ICE thugs operate in their midst, they are still willing to put themselves in harm’s way to defend their community,” he added. “Their resistance is an inspiration to us all.”