Bruce Springsteen pays tribute to Christchurch

Bruce Springsteen paid tribute last night to the city of Christchurch after the recent earthquakes and last week's fires.

When he came on stage, The Boss opened the concert with a greeting of "Finally, Christchurch ...".

The international rock star said he'd been contacted to say Christchurch had suffered an earthquake and locals wanted him to come and play.

"It took a while but we got here."

Earlier in the day he drove around and looked at the city, he said. He dedicated the song, My City Of Ruins to those who suffered the quakes, along with emergency services personnel fighting the Port Hills fires, which he looked out to from the stage.

Bruce Springsteen performs in Christchurch. Photo / Tania Gibson

Originally Springsteen wrote the song about New Jersey which had suffered its own economic hardship, he said, but had slowly built itself up.

The star of Born in the USA and Born to Run also grabbed a cardboard sign from a fan which read, "We Love Christchurch", which got a huge cheer when he held it up to the capacity 30,000 crowd.

Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt perform for the crowd at AMI Stadium. Photo / Anastasia Hedge

- NZ Herald