Bruce Springsteen offers 'a fighting prayer' for America during post-election concert

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen offered his fans "a fighting prayer" for America as he performed hours after Donald Trump was named U.S. president on Wednesday.

The Born in the U.S.A. singer, who had endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for president, subtly referenced the election results when he opened his concert at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada on Wednesday.

He declared, "This is a fighting prayer for my country," before launching into Long Walk Home, a song he rarely opens his shows with.

The track, which appears on his 2007 album Magic, contains the lyrics, "My father said, 'Son, we're lucky in this town/ It's a beautiful place to be born/ It just wraps its arms around you/ Nobody crowds you, nobody goes it alone/ You know that flag flying over the courthouse/ Means certain things are set in stone/ Who we are, what we'll do and what we won't.'"

Springsteen followed Long Walk Home with another apt song, Land of Hope and Dreams.

Before the election, the rocker released a three-minute social media video supporting Harris and even appeared at campaign rallies for her in Pennsylvania and Georgia. During his speech at the latter event, he denounced "tyrant" Trump, saying he "does not understand this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American".

At his concert in Toronto, Springsteen also began by apologising to the crowd for starting more than an hour late, explaining that a flight delay left them "sitting on our a**es" for hours.