During Green Day’s New Year’s Eve television performance, the lyrics of one of their most famous songs were controversially changed, as lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong mocked former President Donald Trump and his supporters, sparking reactions on social media.
Main Facts
In the song “American Idiot,” Armstrong switched the line “I’m not part of a redneck agenda” to “I’m not part of a MAGA agenda,” which provoked outrage online from Trump supporters who coined the phrase “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Main Background
Green Day first emerged in the 1990s with albums like “Dookie,” “Insomniac,” and “Nimrod” before attracting a younger audience with “American Idiot” – a critique of the “era of panic” created by American media – and “21st Century Breakdown,” released in the early 2000s. A theatrical adaptation of “American Idiot” premiered on Broadway in 2010 and was nominated for three Tony Awards. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 and has received 20 Grammy nominations over the many years. “American Idiot” won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album. Green Day released an album in 2020 titled “Father Of All Motherf**kers” and told Forbes contributor Steve Baltin that the album is not explicitly political, but comments on the view that “Trump is deliberately trying to divide the country.”
The Big Number
12 million. That is the number of copies of the “American Idiot” album sold worldwide.
Key Quote
“I hate Donald Trump so much,” Billie Joe Armstrong said to the audience during a performance at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. “I used to scream ‘I hate George Bush.’ This is a little different. This is bad, it’s like bad acid.”
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