I know this sounds contradictory to what I’ve been saying, but hang in there.

“Streets of Minneapolis” may have no legs as a record (ignore its #1 status on iTunes, only old people buy tracks and the number required to top the chart is minuscule), but it does have power as a statement. That’s what we’ve seen over the past couple of days, Bruce cut a protest song, word spread on the internets and it became a big news story. Ditto with opening the Grammys.

Now you don’t have to be nominated for a Grammy to open the show. Just look back to the Police in 2007, who led off the show as a giant advertisement for their reunion tour. Then again, this was news, the band hadn’t been together for decades.

You can’t separate politics from music, as illustrated by this letter to the editor in today’s “New York Times”: 

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So Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president for public relations, believes that there is no place for politics in the arts? She should then be informed of a few historical facts.

In 1786, Mozart premiered his opera “The Marriage of Figaro,” based on a play by Pierre Beaumarchais, an allegory about the French aristocracy.

In 1804, Beethoven retracted his dedication of his Symphony No. 3 to Napoleon in protest of his crowning himself emperor of France.

In 1938, Arturo Toscanini refused to return to the Salzburg Festival in Austria in protest of Hitler’s annexation of Austria.

This list only scratches the surface of how politics has affected the arts over recent history. And it proves that the artists who have recently refused to perform at the Kennedy Center are in extremely good company.

Arthur J. Horowitz

Washington

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/opinion/philip-glass-protest-kennedy-center.html

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Politics and music are intertwined.

But we haven’t had that spirit here since 1969.

But Big Music has become afraid of politics, for fear of alienating someone, for fear of blowback, as the power of music becomes marginalized and the ratings of the Grammys have declined.

But if Springsteen opens the show with “Streets of Minneapolis,” alone, sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar, the story will be front page news immediately, it will dominate discussion for days, it will be a huge anti-ICE story, never to be forgotten.

Like Pee-Wee Herman opening the MTV Video Music Awards.

That’s what MTV specialized in, not bogus, wince-generating “Grammy moments,” but true cultural events, that showed a knowledge of the landscape, that made people believe the outlet was not beholden to anyone but itself and was invested in always pushing the envelope, being on the bleeding edge.

Unlike the Grammy telecast.

So Springsteen opens with this song… The Trumpist blowback will be immediate, just like when it was announced that Bad Bunny would be doing the Super Bowl, a man who has had no problem stating his at times uncomfortable to the right truth. And the funny thing is months later, the NFL now looks prescient, it’s in the right place at the right time. When the blowback happened, the discussion was first about the NFL punting, getting a new headliner, and then not ever having a controversial performer at the game again. But now, in the wake of ICE in Minneapolis, the NFL looks like it has a backbone, instead of bland entertainment it is standing its ground, presenting an artist with a viewpoint.

So, Springsteen…

All it takes is a private jet. Just the man and his guitar. No rehearsal necessary, no one needs to know, even CBS.

And this is the last year of the show on CBS, so if there are bridges to be burned, now is the time. If the heat falls on CBS, all the better…the network that settled with Trump, that is appeasing the president, with Bari Weiss in charge of the news.

And never forget, when Kimmel was taken off the air… He was brought back on primarily because people started canceling their Disney+ subscriptions. CBS and the Ellisons may be in thrall to Trump, but their bills are paid by the public, that’s where their true loyalties, and financial future, lie.

Of course not everybody is going to agree with Springsteen’s anti-ICE viewpoint, but Trump’s ratings are abysmal and the tide is turning against ICE. Being afraid of blowback is exactly what Trump and his minions want, they call this a chilling effect. If you’re afraid to voice your opinion…

What Trump wants is a typical Grammy telecast, forgotten within twenty four hours. Quick, who won last year? You can’t remember. But you will remember that Springsteen opened the show with this anti-ICE song.

And where is it written that no one can perform a political song, have a viewpoint on television? There is no rule, no law whatsoever,  just fear. This is why the Grammys were completely irrelevant at the height of the music explosion. The Beatles and the San Francisco sound and the FM acts were just too dangerous, but that’s where all the action, and the money, ultimately were.

This is a no-brainer. It’s just a matter of whether Harvey Mason, Jr. and Ben Winston have the balls to do it.

Of course everybody on the inside will say not to take the risk, but isn’t music all about risk? Isn’t it always the unexpected that pushes boundaries, that makes us question our values and beliefs, that succeeds? The Beatles did drugs, John Lennon said the band was bigger than Jesus. In retrospect they’re seen as fresh-faced and safe, but that was not the case. They were leaders, they influenced the public, the way people thought. You can’t say the same thing about Bruno Mars, even Lady Gaga, that’s entertainment, not that different from the dreck that preceded the Beatles, that the Lads from Liverpool wiped off the map.

Springsteen may be old…then again, so is CBS’s audience. I mean who is watching an awards show in real time? Certainly not the younger generations, who may not even have access to the show, if anything they’ll watch clips online after the fact, and a clip of Bruce opening the show will go viral.

It’s about the event, the publicity, the statement more than the song itself. This is a moment of triumph wholly within reach of the Grammys and their telecast.

I dare them to do it.