Bette Midler Accepts 2026 Woody Guthrie Prize, Sings Protest Classic: ‘My Small Contribution to the Resistance’

Bette Midler sang her updated version of Woody Guthrie ’s 1940s protest classic “All You Fascists (Bound to Lose)” as she accepted the 2026 Woody Guthrie Prize at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Friday (Oct.

16).

Just so no one missed the message, she wore a T-shirt embossed with the blunt song title.

“Justice doesn’t always come from the courthouse,” Midler said in accepting the award.

“Sometimes the law is late, overdressed, and on the wrong side.

Justice comes from a beat-up guitar instead… So, when I wanted to say something about what I was seeing going on today, I took his [Woody’s] song, and I put new words in its mouth, because the old fights came back in new suits.

They always do.” Related Billy Crystal Resurrects ‘Mr.

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We’re having a knife fight in a phone booth.

These are hard and terrible times.

A war is being waged against us, and we are all being drafted.

Whether the letter arrives or not.

Thank you for noticing that I showed up for duty.” Midler released her spirited version of Guthrie’s song on YouTube in April, accompanied by this message: “You know I’ve been around a long time, but I have never lived through what we are living through now.

The great Woody Guthrie wrote this song many years ago.