Bruce Springsteen Day: New Jersey honor follows Covid diagnosis

New Jersey will on 23 September celebrate Bruce Springsteen Day for the first time, a move announced by the governor, Phil Murphy, a day after the singer and his wife, Patti Scialfa, tested positive for Covid-19.

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“Bruce Springsteen is one of the most iconic and influential musicians – and New Jerseyans – of all time,” Murphy, a Democrat, said on Saturday at the American Music Honors, an event at the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University in West Long Branch.

The governor added: “It is important we recognise Bruce for all he has done and will continue to do, from giving us the gift of his music to lending his time to the causes close to his heart, including making … a repository that will inspire tomorrow’s songwriters and singers.”

Springsteen and Scialfa attended the event by video, having tested positive for Covid after a concert at the Prudential Center in Newark on Friday that the Asbury Park Press called “rollicking, rolling and boisterous … rock’n’roll glory delivered with guts”.

Hosting the West Long Branch event, the comedian Jon Stewart said Springsteen and Scialfa looked “eerily healthy”, telling worried attendees: “They’re alive. Don’t overreact. You can still see them in concert. They’re home sitting by the fire eating french onion soup.”

This 23 September, Springsteen, popularly known as the Boss, will turn 74. The Newark show was the last of a series of US dates to promote his 21st studio album, Only the Strong Survive. The tour will soon head to Europe, then return to the US in the summer.

Last month, Springsteen announced rescheduled dates in Connecticut, Albany, New York and Columbus, Ohio, in the weeks before his birthday. Those shows, first scheduled for March, were postponed after band members contracted Covid.

Also in March, Joe Biden awarded Springsteen the National Medal of Arts, for being “one of our greatest performers and storytellers [who] celebrates our triumphs, heals our wounds, and gives us hope, capturing the unyielding spirit of what it means to be American”.

On Saturday, Murphy thanked Springsteen “for showing the world what it means to live our New Jersey values” and said: “I am both honored and proud to declare his birthday Bruce Springsteen Day in New Jersey.

“Truth be told, I know my place in the hierarchy of New Jersey. After all, I may be the 56th individual to be called ‘governor’, but there will ever only be just one Boss.”