This New Jersey representative faked his Spotify Wrapped results to put all Springsteen songs in his top 5

Emily Bloch, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Dec 11, 2024

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You’re not the only one who might be embarrassed of your Spotify Wrapped results. This U.S. representative admitted to faking his.

U.S. Rep Josh Gottheimer (D., N.J.) joined the tried and true tradition of sharing his Spotify Wrapped results — the music streaming platform’s annual deep dive into users’ listening habits — on social media last week.

“No surprises here,” Gottheimer, who announced his candidacy for New Jersey governor last month, wrote, revealing that his five top songs were Bruce Springsteen hits, with “Thunder Road” as his No. 1. “Fun fact: My first ever concert was at Meadowlands to see The Boss!”

But, as first pointed out by the New Jersey Monitor, the seemingly innocuous post wasn’t completely honest.

A closer look revealed inconsistencies with the font, spacing, and resolution in Gottheimer’s post compared to legit Wrapped results.

Gottheimer admitted the results were fudged when asked by NJ.com columnist Jeremy Schneider.

His reasoning? The congressman says he shares his Spotify account with his kids.

“This would be my Spotify Wrapped if I didn’t share my account with my 12- and 15-year-old kids,” he said. “While it’s Springsteen all day for me — don’t get me wrong, I still love listening to Taylor Swift!”

Spotify Wrapped is unflinchingly honest over how it presents its findings. And while there are loopholes, there’s not an overtly easy way for users to omit their potentially mockable listening habits. This rings especially true for users like Gottheimer, who share their account with their kids, a common scarlet letter when it comes time for Wrapped season.

There are ways to get ahead of it. Users can exclude certain playlists from their taste profile to keep songs within it from influencing their data. But it sounds like Gottheimer didn’t get the memo in time.

Despite manipulating his results, the New Jersey native says his fandom for the Boss is legit.

He walked out to “Glory Days” when he announced his gubernatorial run last month and said he’d catch “a Springsteen show every chance he could get” on his campaign website. He was also spotted in the crowd earlier this year for Springsteen’s Sea. Here. Now Festival performance in Asbury Park.

Still, Schneider with NJ.com says the faked results — along with Gottheimer’s admission — could be seen by some as a pandering attempt to “strengthen his Springsteen-fan, every-man status among would-be voters.”

“After all,” the columnist added, “riding hard for the Boss is one of the easiest ways to score points in New Jersey” and a tradition among past Jersey governors to celebrate the musician.

The Inquirer reached out to Gottheimer to see if he’d share his real results. A spokesperson shared a tweet from Gottheimer on Wednesday where he said the results were meant to be a joke. As for his Springsteen creds, the congressman wrote, “just ask my dog named Rosalita!” and included a photo of his pup.

After initially declining to share his full results, a spokesperson emailed The Inquirer the congressman’s Wrapped summary Wednesday afternoon.

The Boss is indeed in the No. 1 slot for top artists, and Springsteen’s “She’s the One” was Gottheimer’s third most listened-to song of the year.

His No. 2 artist for the year was Billy Joel with Joel’s “Turn the Lights Back On” also coming in as Gottheimer’s No. 1 most listened-to song. As he mentioned in his original acknowledgment, Taylor Swift also earned a spot on his Wrapped along with Drake and Travis Scott.