Bruce Springsteen calls his Oscar win for ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ a ‘fluke’
The singer reveals how a simple demo created in just days became an award-winning anthem
Bruce Springsteen is looking back on the unexpected journey behind his Oscar-winning song “Streets of Philadelphia,” admitting he never imagined the track would become such a major success.
During the Storytellers event at the Tribeca Festival on June 13, the 76-year-old singer-songwriter reflected on his decades-long career while speaking with longtime friend Bono.
Springsteen was also honored with the Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award.
While discussing the song from the 1993 film Philadelphia, Springsteen described winning an Academy Award for the track as something that happened unexpectedly.
“It was just kind of a fluke,” he said.
The musician explained that director Jonathan Demme reached out to him looking for a rock song for the film and shared details about the project.
“He told me a little bit about the film, and he sent me just an opening two minutes or so of it,” Springsteen recalled.
The “Born to Run” singer said he initially tried to write a traditional rock song but struggled to find the right direction.
“So I went next door, and I had a little synthesizer and a little drum machine and in a couple of days I wrote the song,” he explained.
Springsteen said he was unsure whether Demme would connect with the track, but he decided to send over the early version.
“I sent it to him and he roughed it into the film, and then I sent him a real version, and he threw that out and kept the rough version that I sent him, and then we won the Oscar,” he shared.
The song became one of Springsteen’s most celebrated works, earning the Academy Award for Best Original Song along with multiple Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year and Best Rock Song. It also won a Golden Globe and an MTV Movie Award.
Released in 1993, Philadelphia starred Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington and explored themes of discrimination, prejudice, and the AIDS crisis.
The film followed Hanks’ character Andrew Beckett, a lawyer who takes legal action against his former employer after claiming he was fired because he was gay and had AIDS.
During his conversation with Bono, Springsteen also reflected on the impact of the project and praised Demme, who died in 2017.
“It was really one of those things. If you do good things, good things happen,” Springsteen said.
The singer added that Demme’s vision helped bring the song into the film, saying they ultimately “lucked out” with the collaboration.