New Jersey Democratic representative Josh Gottheimer might be a born and bred Jerseyite, but his recent Spotify Wrapped results seemed to put his allegiences to the Garden State in question.
According to NJ.com, Gottheimer was one of the countless millions around the world who took part in Spotify’s annual Wrapped feature, allowing them to reflect on their listening habits across the last year. Fittingly, the results he shared showed he was a dedicated fan of New Jersey musical icon Bruce Springsteen.
“No surprises here… Fun fact: My first ever concert was at Meadowlands to see The Boss!” Gottheimer shared on social media, alongside an image which showed his top five songs of the year were Springsteen’s “Thunder Road”, “Because the Night”, “Glory Days”, “Badlands”, and “The Rising”.
However, the New Jersey Monitor soon weighed in, pointing out some discrepencies between Gottheimer’s results and other Wrapped rundowns. Specifically, the font choice and spacing were singled out as points of contention, eventually being enough for it be deemed a fake.
“This would be my Spotify Wrapped if I didn’t share my account with my 12 and 15-year-old kids,” Gottheimer said in a statement when pressed for comment. “While it’s Springsteen all day for me — don’t get me wrong, I still love listening to Taylor Swift!”
Following the backlash, Gottheimer again took to social media to tamp down the low-level furore. “To paraphrase the Boss: I wasn’t here for business baby, I was only here for fun,” he wrote. “So just relax. This was a fun holiday tweet. It’s a joke to question my Springsteen creds, just ask my dog named Rosalita!”
“Let’s get back to what people do care about—lower taxes, lower costs!” he added.
Gottheimer later shared his real top five artists and songs, which noted that Springsteen was indeed his number one, followed closely by Billy Joel, Drake, Travis Scott, and Taylor Swift.
On the songs front, Springsteen’s 1975 track “She’s the One” hit the No. 3 spot, while the top spot belonged to Joel’s 2024 pop comeback “Turn the Lights Back On”. Gottheimer is, however, yet to respond to fellow New Jerseyans about his concession of the top spot to a New York artist.
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