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U2 shared a lengthy post on their website clarifying the band members’ individual stances on Israel and Gaza. “We are not experts in the politics of the region, but we want our audience to know where we each stand,” the Irish group wrote.

Each band member—Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr.—shared a statement with their thoughts on the ongoing war, which has transpired since Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Bono noted that since then he has “generally tried to stay out of the politics of the Middle East.

The four members of Irish rock supergroup U2 have weighed in on the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, with each member — Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. — releasing individual statements. The four statements were shared on U2’s official Instagram account and website Sunday, alongside the following joint message: “Everyone has long been horrified by what is unfolding in Gaza — but the blocking of humanitarian aid and now plans for a military takeover of Gaza City has taken the conflict into uncharted territory. We are not experts in the politics of the region, but we want our audience to know where we each stand.”

Bono, the lead singer of the band and the most politically active member, released the longest of the four statements, nearly 1,250 words, in which he explained that he “generally tried to stay out of the politics of the Middle East,” not out of humility, but...

In a new special, “Edge: Respect,” U2’s The Edge shines a light on musicians that have his respect — and deserve yours.

Edge: RespectThe Edge shares his Hall of Fame artistsListen on the App

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Now available on the SiriusXM app, hear The Edge introduce and make a case for artists and bands like The Clash, Al Green, Hozier, Thin Lizzy, Virgin Prunes, Big Audio Dynamite, and more while playing their music during an exclusive mix.

U2 X-Radio

Featuring the songs of a band from the Northside of Dublin, SiriusXM’s U2 X-Radio channel is a complete immersion into the music of Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen, and Adam Clayton. Hear the band’s history, idols, influences, and current passions, plus inspiration, conversation, culture, commentary, and ideas. U2 X-Radio introduces listeners to old friends and new stories, as well as artists, writers, thinkers, and activists who are changing the world,...

U2 guitarist The Edge has spent more than six decades living in Ireland. The country is as home to him as any place can be, especially now that has become an actual citizen there. On Monday, the musician, born David Howell Evans in Essex, was granted Irish citizenship. “I guess, you know, I’m a little tardy with the paper work. I’ve been living in Ireland now since I was one year old,” he said, per the Journal. “But the time is right. And I couldn’t be more...

If there's one superhero who's had many memorable themes, it's Batman. Each iteration on the Dark Knight has usually come with an earworm, all the way back to Neal Hefti's "Na-na-na-na-na, Batman!" opening in the 1960s "Batman" show. Danny Elfman's theme for the Tim Burton "Batman" movies, echoed by composer Shirley Walker on "Batman: The Animated Series," was classically operatic and became the Batman theme.

Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard's "Dark Knight" trilogy scores may not have received an Oscar, but it wasn't for lack of deserving one. Their primary theme, "Molossus," is intense and unrelenting but does not sacrifice creepiness. It's perfect for Christopher Nolan's dark and action-fueled Batman. Michael Giacchino's simple but effective theme for 2022's "The Batman" is the most ominous. It consistently rises in power, like fear sliding up a criminal's spine when they look into the shadows and see Batman.

One of the most unusual visitors to this year’s Cannes Film Festival was a 65-year-old Irishman named Paul David Hewson, better known as Bono to the world at large and especially to the millions of fans of his rock band U2. In 2022, Bono wrote a memoir called “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story,” which he promoted with a handful of theatrical shows in which he talked about his life, played characters including his father, with whom he had a troubled relationship, and sang a few U2 songs accompanied by the Jacknife Lee Ensemble, a cello/harp/keyboards trio that sounds nothing like U2.

The show found Bono sharing the stage with three empty chairs, which represented his missing bandmates The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. It made for a dramatic night of memories, and he upped the drama by hiring Andrew Dominik who directed “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford...

Musical marvel Bono, the lead U2 vocalist, can be recognized instantly due to his tinted sunglasses, strong voice in global activism, and music that helped shape rock in the 80s and beyond. However, despite his decades-long career, this man has been able to maintain the kind of mystery only a few stars have.

There are several lesser-known facts about Bono, which are well-kept secrets. He is a tireless humanitarian, with intriguing life stories that have value and learning. A lot of these intriguing stories have flown under the radar, it is unconventional journey into music isn’t one that should go unnoticed. Let’s have a look at some of the most interesting facts about Ireland’s most influential cultural figures.

1. Origin story for the iconic name Bono

Before he became the face of U2, a name synonymous with global activism, Bono was known as Paul David Hewson, who was...

Cannes film festival

The U2 singer’s solo stage appearance sees him reflect on his anguished family past and have a decent go at being an ordinary Joe

The stadium-conquering rock superstar Bono finds a smaller arena than usual for this more intimate and much acclaimed “quarter-man” show, performed solo without his U2 bandmates Adam Clayton, David “The Edge” Evans and Larry Mullen Jr and filmed live on stage at New York’s Beacon theatre in 2023 by Andrew Dominik. It’s a confident, often engaging mix of music and no-frills theatrical performance, with Bono often coming across like some forgotten character that Samuel Beckett created but then suppressed due to undue levels of rock’n’roll pizzazz.

Bono delivers anecdotes from his autobiography Surrender, starting with his recent heart scare and going back to his Dublin childhood, his musical breakthrough to global fame, his post-Live Aid charity work on poverty...

Leave it to Bono to turn a book tour into something as extravagant as “Bono: Stories of Surrender,” the Apple TV+ movie that had its world premiere on Friday night at the Cannes Film Festival.

The U2 singer has never been one for half-measures or modesty, and his version of the book tour for his 2022 autobiography “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story” was a dramatic, theatrical presentation that mixed memory and music to provide snapshots from his life, from a child in Dublin to an international rock star. Presented on a small number of stages around the world, most notably during a 10-night stand in New York’s Beacon Theatre, it was no book reading or stripped down “Springsteen on Broadway”-style presentation, but a sensory delight as theatrical in its own way as U2’s own performances.

And “Bono: Stories of Surrender” takes the Beacon shows as a launching pad – but...

U2’s Bono is seen as a successor to a very small fraternity of world-conquering rock stars – the likes of Springsteen, Jagger and Bowie. He’s less recognized as a successor to a literary tradition: the Irish pantheon of Joyce, Yeats, Beckett, Heaney, and O’Brien.

But his impressive gift of language shines in the new documentary Bono: Stories of Surrender, directed by Andrew Dominik, which just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Special Screenings section.

“I was born with an eccentric heart,” he notes wryly near the beginning of the film – an iteration of his one-man show at New York’s Beacon Theatre, which in turn grew out of his 2022 memoir, Bono: 40 Songs, One Story. The lovely “eccentric heart” line gestures to an inherited condition that would almost cost him his life: He underwent emergency aortic valve-replacement surgery in 2016. That near-death experience in his mid-50s seems...

Bono laid bare his transformation from Dublin lad Paul Hewson into a global rock star and human rights crusader in his memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. Now, premiering at Cannes, comes the Andrew Dominik-directed documentary Bono: Stories of Surrender. Culled from the U2 frontman’s 2023 one-man show at New York’s Beacon Theater, Bono weaves performances of his best-known hit songs into a tale of a youngster suffering the shocking loss of his mother and trying in vain to get the needed acknowledgment from a grieving father who withdrew and never mentioned his dead wife in their Dublin home. The need to fill the void and to be seen and heard led to a miracle. In the span of a week, the 16-year-old Bono found the family that would sustain him. In short order, he fell in love with future wife Ali, and found his bandmates Dave Evans (The...

U2’s The Edge called into U2 X-Radio on SiriusXM to chat with host Jenny Huston about U2’s new music, his new series on the channel (“Best Ever Guitar Sound”), the songs he’s listening to now, performing at the Sphere in Las Vegas, and more.

Edge Pops InExclusive interview with Jenny HustonListen on the App

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“We’re having a lot of fun,” The Edge said about recording U2’s new album. “We’re working together in the studio in various parts of the world with Jacknife Lee. We don’t have anything finished yet, so it’s too early to start telling people what it is, but we’re making great progress.”

Related: Stream Adam Clayton’s Exclusive Interview with Green Day’s Mike Dirnt “Edge Pops In” on U2 X-Radio How to Listen

Stream The Edge’s exclusive interview with Jenny anytime...

Exclusive: Apple Original Films has completed production on Bono: Stories of Surrender, a documentary film about the making of the U2 singer and songwriter. Directed by The Assassination of Jesse James helmer Andrew Dominik, the film is a visual exploration of Bono’s one-man show by the same name that was inspired by his bestselling memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.

The film will premiere globally on Friday, May 30 on Apple TV+. That day will see the release of an immersive version of the film to premiere on Apple Vision Pro. That marks the first feature length film available in Apple Immersive Video, a knock-your-socks-off version recorded in 8K with Spatial Audio to produce a 180-degree video that places viewers onstage with Bono, and at the center of his story. That immersive film will be available only on Vision Pro, and according to Apple, the initiative is a key element that...

Larry Mullen Jr. has been diagnosed with dyscalculia, a form of dyslexia that impacts his work.

The U2 drummer recently explained that “counting bars is like climbing Everest” as he opened up for the first time about the diagnosis that makes it difficult to count or add numbers, something that has long affected him without knowing the root.

“I’ve always known that there’s something not particularly right with the way that I deal with numbers. I’m numerically challenged,” he explained on Times Radio. “And I realised recently that I have dyscalculia, which is a sub-version of dyslexia. So I can’t count [and] I can’t add.”

Having co-founded U2 in 1976 with Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton, Mullen noted that his struggle with the learning disability has long taken a toll.

“When people watch me play sometimes, they say, ‘you look pained,'” he said. “I am...

Next month, U2 are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their Grammy-winning album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb with a reissue featuring multiple songs from the archives. In advance, they’ve unearthed the previously unreleased track “Happiness.” Stream it below.

The driving, energetic song is one of 10 tracks that will make up the “shadow album” accompanying the re-release, titled How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb, featuring tunes that were pulled from the recording sessions around the 2004 LP. “Happiness is for those who don’t really need it,” Bono sings on the chorus.

“It was amazing to go back and hear some of these tracks that we played as a band; we’re fond of those tracks, they’re your friends,” Adam Clayton shared in an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music. “You feel that not much more needs to happen. It’s all there.”

The two albums will receive...

Exclusive: Rock star Adam Clayton will explore the unique phenomenon of the Irish showband in doc series Ballroom Blitz. The show, from Dublin based Sideline Productions, has been commissioned by Irish pubcaster Rte. Seasoned international exec Michael Murphy will be at MIPCOM looking to attach a distributor.

The Irish showbands entertained young audiences in Ireland during a moment of growth and prosperity in the 1960s. They were normally a seven or eight piece outfit with powerful horn sections and they interspersed waltzes, Irish music and jazz with the pop hits of the day.

There is a U.S. dimension to the story. Sixty years before U2 played Las Vegas at the Sphere in 2024, Irish showbands entertained American audiences during residencies in Vegas and packed out Irish ballrooms in New York, Boston and Chicago. Their U.S. success was managed by the mercurial Bill Fuller who ended up owning over thirty ballrooms in Ireland,...

Sphere is circling back to U2.

The groundbreaking Las Vegas entertainment venue has confirmed that it will present V-U2, an immersive concert film directed by Morleigh Steinberg and band member The Edge. Opening Sept. 5, the film is billed as a “one-of-a-kind cinematic experience” focused on the iconic band’s inaugural run with U2:Uv Achtung Baby Live at Sphere.

U2 played to more 700,000 fans across 40 sold-out dates from September 2023 through March 2024. The shows commemorated one of U2’s most successful records, the chart-topping 1991 release Achtung Baby, played in its entirety with selected tracks from other U2 efforts over the years. V-U2 is the first film ever to be shot entirely with Big Sky, an ultra-high-resolution camera system developed by Sphere Entertainment and designed to make audiences feel like experiencing the live performances. Also of note: V-U2 makes use of Sphere’s haptic seats, which use vibrations so guests can “feel” the music.

September 5 will be a beautiful day for U2 fans. V-U2: An Immersive Concert Film at Sphere Las Vegas will open that night at the state-of-the-art venue where it was shot. Watch a trailer above.

Directed by Morleigh Steinberg and the band’s founding guitarist The Edge, V-U2 chronicles the Irish megaband’s U2:uv Achtung Baby Live at Sphere residency from September 2023 through March. It is the first film shot entirely with Big Sky, Sphere Entertainment’s ultrahigh-resolution camera system.

“The goal was to give the immersive moviegoers as close to the live U2:uv concert experience as possible — and then some,” The Edge said. “I’ve never seen a U2 show. I’m so relieved I caught a great one.”

Added Steinberg: “We knew all the tremendous capabilities of the technology, but we didn’t know what to expect from the process of making this film. The...

On a new episode of “Adam Clayton’s Playlist” on U2 X-Radio, Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt talked about how it feels to perform the band’s “Dookie” album again, 30 years after its release.

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“It’s actually really fun,” Mike told Adam, bassist-to-bassist, “and for as simple a record as it is to play, my hands are telling me it’s quite muscular. There’s a lot to it, and it also just doesn’t stop. It’s bam, bam, bam, bam. It’s 28 minutes of nonstop power-pop or power-pop-punk. But a lot of those songs are still relatable to this day. Some of them even more so.”

Green Day is currently on The Saviors Tour, where they perform both the “Dookie” (1994) and “American Idiot” (2004) albums in their entirety at every stop.

“For us in U2,...

Taylor Swift made it through three Eras tour shows in London without once playing “London Boy,” the deep cut from her 2019 album Lover. The sentiment of the record hasn’t aged all that well, but looking ahead at her three-show run beginning in Ireland tonight, “You know I love a Dublin boy” has a better ring to it, anyway. Ahead of Swift’s string of performances at Aviva Stadium, the musician received a welcome gift from U2, her self-proclaimed “Irish Fan Club.”

The band sent Swift a bouquet of flowers...

Taylor Swift received a welcome gift from U2 when she landed in Dublin, Ireland, for her latest stop on The Eras Tour.

The Fortnight singer took to social media to share an image signed by Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr.

“Already feeling that Irish hospitality,” Swift shared on her Instagram Stories alongside a photo of the flowers she received from the band. “U2, thanks for always being the classiest & coolest.”

Swift also shared the note signed by the band, “Dear Taylor, Welcome back to our hometown… leave some of it standing? Your Irish fan club.”

Taylor Swift shares note from U2 on Instagram

Related: Dave Grohl Takes Jab At Taylor Swift During Foo Fighters’ London Show: “We Actually Play Live”

Swift’s stop in Ireland comes after her three nights at Wembley Stadium in London last weekend. The singer was joined by her boyfriend, Travis Kelce,...

U2 is made up of Bono on vocals and rhythm guitar; The Edge on lead guitar, keyboards and backing vocals; Adam Clayton on bass guitar; and Larry Mullen, Jr. on drums and occasionally backing vocals.

The band is actively involved in improving human rights around the world with organizations such as Make Poverty History, Live 8 and Bono’s Data campaign.

U2 recorded a John Lennon song for a CD compilation to raise funds for Amnesty International.

Charities & foundations supported

U2 has supported the following charities:

46664Amnesty InternationalComic ReliefDATAGabrielle's Angel FoundationGlobal FundGRAMMY FoundationGreenpeaceHabitat For HumanityHuman Rights Action CenterLegacy of Hope FoundationLive 8Make Poverty HistoryMencapMusiCaresMusic for ReliefMusic GenerationMusic RisingONE Campaign(Red)Save the ChildrenSpecial OlympicsStand Up To CancerThe HollyRod Foundation Read more about U2's charity work and events. Related articles Green Day and U2 single to benefit Music RisingThe Magnitude of Fortitude - When Parkinson’s Patients Feel Their Lives Are Crumbling,...

After being discovered in an attic, John Lennon’s famous Help! guitar is headed to auction as part of the upcoming “Music Icons” sale at Julien’s Auctions on May 29 and 30.

Both Lennon and George Harrison played the Framus 12-string Hootenanny acoustic guitar while making Help! — both the album and accompanying film — as well as Rubber Soul. Lennon can be seen strumming it in the performance of “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” in the Help! movie, while it’s distinct 12-string shimmer also graced songs like “Help!”, “It’s Only Love,...

Paramount+ today announced that the critically acclaimed documentary Kiss the Future, which made its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival and opened the Tribeca Festival in 2023, will premiere exclusively on the service in the U.S. and Canada on May 7. The documentary features interviews with Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Christine Amanpour, Bill Clinton, and more.

Produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon for Artists Equity and Sarah Anthony, Kiss the Future was directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain and written by Bill S. Carter and Cicin-Sain. It is based on Carter’s memoir Fools Rush In.

The film tells a story of defiance amid the 1990s siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, focusing on a vibrant, underground community that used art and music to affect change; a community that garnered global attention by ultimately inspiring an American aid worker to reach out to the band U2 to help raise awareness of the devastating conflict.

U2 wrapped the inaugural residency at Las Vegas’ $2.3 billion technical and visual marvel Sphere this weekend, closing out a 40-show run that started in September. Fittingly, the legendary band did so by bringing things full circle.

The shows commemorated one of U2’s most successful records, the chart-topping 1991 release Achtung Baby, played in its entirety with selected tracks from other U2 efforts over the years. To further honor the album, U2 bandmates Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Bram van den Berg (sitting in during the residency for an ailing Larry Mullen Jr.) welcomed Achtung Baby producer Daniel Lanois to the stage Saturday night to play guitar and sing backup on the track “One.”

“There would be no Achtung Baby without Daniel Lanois,” Bono said in welcoming him up the back stairs with a request to the audience. “Show him your light,” and they did by holding up smartphone flashbulbs in a beautiful scene.

U2 closed out the final night of their Las Vegas Sphere residency by playing the War deep cut “40” for the first time since 2016. The 1983 tune closed out countless U2 shows throughout the Eighties, and it happened to be U2’s 40th show at the Sphere since they opened up the $2 billion venue in September 2023.

Astute fans knew “40” was coming when bassist Adam Clayton and guitarist The Edge swapped instruments, which was a ritual in the group’s early days. “It’s been 40 days and 40 nights in the desert,...

AMC Theatres will be the exclusive cinematic home to Kiss the Future, the award-winning documentary about the siege of Sarajevo and how its people and artistic community drew inspiration from the music of U2.

Under a deal between AMC and Fifth Season, select AMC locations will debut the film on February 23 for what is described as a full theatrical run. Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Christiane Amanpour, and former Pres. Bill Clinton are among those who appear in the film directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain and produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Sarah Anthony. Kiss the Future will become available to stream later this year exclusively on Paramount+.

“Kiss the Future, directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain, story by Bill Carter and Cicin-Sain, screenplay by Carter, based on his memoir: Fools Rush In, is the story of defiance amid the 1990s siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War,” notes a release about the documentary.

“Kiss the Future,” a documentary produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and featuring Bono and Bill Clinton, is coming to the big screen next month.

The film will receive a theatrical run exclusively at AMC Theatres, starting on Feb. 23, before it lands on Paramount+ at a later date. This marks the theater chain’s latest foray into distribution following the release of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.” However, the two concert docs played on more than just AMC screens.

Directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain, “Kiss the Future” chronicles the 1990s siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War and focuses on an underground community that used music and art to effect change. They eventually inspired an American aid worker to reach out to U2 to raise awareness of the conflict. In the documentary, the band follows through on its promise to perform at a post-war...

AMC Theatres is continuing its foray into the distribution business following Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.

The world’s largest cinema circuit revealed Wednesday it has pacted with Fifth Season to release the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck-produced documentary Kiss the Future in the U.S. The acclaimed film chronicles the vibrant underground music scene during the Siege of Sarajevo and U2’s involvement, culminating with the band’s 1997 concert there.

Unlike the Beyoncé and Swift concert films, Kiss the Future will play exclusively in select AMC locations. The film, which will receive a full theatrical run beginning Feb. 23, will stream later this year on Paramount+

Directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain and also produced by Sarah Anthony, the doc is based on Bill Carter’s memoir Fools Rush In, a story of how a vibrant underground community used music and art to effect change...

ROXi, a music video streaming app for TVs whose backers include Simon Cowell and Kylie Minogue that was first launched in the U.K., is coming to the United States.

The service promises American viewers access to some 100 million music videos — including the likes of Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Beyoncé — plus hundreds of curated music video channels, karaoke and music games. ROXi’s services are available free with ads, or without ads for a monthly subscription fee.

ROXi will be available in the first quarter of 2024 on multiple connected-tv platforms. In addition, in partnership with TV broadcaster Sinclair, the company plans to launch what it claims will be the U.S.’s first fully interactive broadcast TV channels, allowing viewers to pause, play and skip content on compatible TV sets. ROXi plans to launch three interactive music channels — the ROXi Music Channel, the ROXi Music Karaoke Channel and the...

While Achtung Baby is the centerpiece of U2’s game-changing Las Vegas residency, the band have been using the Sphere to revisit long-forgotten songs from their catalog. That continued Friday night as Bono and company dug out “Seconds” for the first time live since 1985.

“A great Adam Clayton bassline that he has not played for 40 years,” Bono said in the lead-up. “From the War album, ‘Seconds.'” Bono then turned lead vocals over to the Edge, who sang the majority of the unlikely performance, with plenty of audience participation. “Good singing,...

The long-awaited opening for the Sphere in Las Vegas has come. U2 performed over the weekend playing at the debut of the stadium on the opening night of their tour U2: Uv Achtung Baby Live at Sphere.

The band performed many of their famous songs, drawing inspiration for their setlist from their album Achtung Baby. They played their songs “Zoo Station,” “Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around the World” and “So Cruel.” They will continue their tour until December 16 with 24 more shows to come.

The visuals have been described as similar to an IMAX theater movie. The Sphere was created by Madison Square Garden Entertainment and is currently the largest spherical structure in the world, taking up two blocks and is taller than the length of a football field. It includes amenities such as the highest and largest resolution LED screen in the world and covers the entire stadium.

It looked like a typical U2 outdoor concert: Two helicopters zoomed through the starlit sky before producing spotlights over a Las Vegas desert and frontman Bono, who kneeled to the ground while singing the band’s 2004 hit “Vertigo”.

This scene may seem customary, but the visuals were created by floor-to-ceiling graphics inside the immersive Sphere. It was one of the several impressive moments during U2’s “Uv Achtung Baby” residency launch show at the high-tech, globe-shaped venue, which opened for the first time Friday night.

The legendary rock band, which has won 22 Grammys, performed for two hours inside the massive, state-of-the-art spherical venue with crystal-clear audio. Throughout the night, there were a plethora of attractive visuals — including kaleidoscope images, a burning flag and Las Vegas’ skyline, taking the more than 18,000 attendees on U2’s epic musical journey.

Read More: U2’s Bono & The Edge Perform Surprise Show In Ukraine Bomb Shelter

“What a fancy pad,...

Given U2’s reputation for pushing technical and creative boundaries with its live concerts, it seemed fitting that the band opened the anticipated Sphere in Las Vegas on Friday with its most ambitious and transportive live show ever: an electrifying live performance and visual odyssey that unfolds on Sphere’s enveloping 160,000-square-foot wraparound interior LED display.

Built for an estimated $2.3 billion, Sphere is a big gamble by Msg mogul James Dolan and Sphere Entertainment Co. (which was formed in April to combine Sphere and Msg Networks) on the future of entertainment. At 336 feet tall and 516 feet wide, the venue is now the largest spherical structure in the world, housing the largest interior and exterior wraparound LED displays. Inside, the enveloping LED display supports a high resolution of 16K, meaning that it delivers images so lifelike that it may make you feel as though you’re no longer in a Las...

The opening night of Sphere in Las Vegas represented a great many things. For James Dolan and his business partners, it was an opportunity to introduce their $2 billion investment to the world. For the live music industry, it was a chance to see if giant concerts could work outside of the stadiums and arenas that have housed them going back to the days of Beatlemania. And for Las Vegas, it was a test run of a grand new attraction that should bring tourists to the city for years to come.

U2 are back with “Atomic City,” their first original new song in two years. Listen to the track below.

The Edge recently declared that he wanted U2 to lead a “resurgence of guitars” in pop music, and with “Atomic City,” he puts his money where his mouth is. The track — named after Las Vegas, where the band will soon perform a residency at the new Sphere — oscillates between staccato verses and a rollicking chorus as Bono sings, “Love is God and God is love/ And if your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough.” A gospel chorus and squalling horns even make an appearance before the guitarist takes a proper solo.

U2 shot a music video for “Atomic City” in its namesake metropolis. While on set, Bono told the fans who gathered to catch the taping that the song is “a rock ‘n’ roll 45 in the tradition of ’70s post-punk,...

Sinead O’Connor was buried in a private ceremony near her former home in Bray, Ireland. Before she was laid to rest, the family encouraged her fans to say goodbye to her.

After her family and friends had a funeral, her cortège drove through the streets again. One of O’Connor’s favorite singer’s music, Bob Marley, was played from a vintage Volkswagen camper van that drove in front of a hearse. The two cars drove down the street as thousands of fans watched and paid their respects.

Some admirers waited hours for the cars and when the car arrived, they tossed flowers on top of the hearse.

The crowd applauded and sang her song “Nothing Compares 2 U.” The cars drove to her former home where fans left “Refugees Welcome,” Gay Pride and Black Lives Matter signs in front of it.

Some attendees of the funeral included The Edge, Adam Clayton,...

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck produced the film.

The 29th Sarajevo Film Festival is to open with Kiss The Future, a documentary that recounts how rock band U2 came to play a concert in Sarajevo in the wake of the Bosnian War.

The feature, directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain, will screen as part of the festival’s Open Air programme on August 11. It previously received its world premiere at the Berlinale in February.

The documentary explores how a US aid worker in war-torn Sarajevo enlisted the help of U2 to shine a light on the Bosnian War.

Produced by Matt Damon...

New York City Mayor Eric Adams with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro on the opening night of the 22nd edition of the Tribeca Film Festival before the screening of Nenad Cicin-Sain’s Kiss the Future, edited by Eric Burton Photo: Arturo Holmes, Getty Images

Tribeca co-founders Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal attended with Brendan Fraser (Oscar-winner for Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale), Shirin Neshat, West Duchovny, Elvira Lind, Alfredo Jaar, Patty Jenkins, Mark Ruffalo, and Peter Coyote the Opening Night Gala of the 22nd edition of the Tribeca Film Festival screening of Nenad Cicin-Sain’s terrific documentary Kiss The Future, which includes on-camera interviews with U2 members Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton, plus Bill Clinton, Christiane Amanpour, Enes Zlatar (Sikter), Srdan Gino Jevdević (Kulture Shock), Vesna Andree Zaimović (journalist), and Senad Zaimović (editor-in-chief of Rat Art).

Eric Burton with Anne-Katrin Titze on the multicultural diversity in Sarajevo:...

Tribeca Film Festival Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer on Pierfrancesco Favino, star of Andrea Di Stefano’s The Last Night with Amore: “He’s an extraordinary actor.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Opening Night Gala selection of the 22nd edition of the Tribeca Film Festival is Nenad Cicin-Sain’s terrific documentary Kiss the Future, which includes on-camera interviews with U2 members Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton, plus Bill Clinton, Christiane Amanpour, Enes Zlatar (Sikter), Srdan Gino Jevdev (Kulture Shock), Vesna Andree Zaimović (journalist), and Senad Zaimović (editor-in-chief of the Rat Art).

Frédéric Boyer with Anne-Katrin Titze on Pier-Philippe Chevigny’s Richelieu: “This is about workers, the actors are extraordinary in the film.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In the second instalment with Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer on the 2023 selections we discuss Robert De Niro’s A Bronx Tale (Closing Night Gala selection) Andrea Di Stefano’s (the priest in Ang Lee’s Life Of Pi...

U2 have confirmed the initial dates for their upcoming residency at the brand new Sphere in Las Vegas.

The run of shows, titled “U2:uv Achtung Baby Live At Sphere,” will take place beginning Friday, September 29th, 2023. Update: U2 have announced eight additional dates in December, bringing the total number of confirmed shows to 25. Check out the complete itinerary below.

The dates mark U2’s first confirmed live performances in four years. Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. will not be participating in these shows as he takes time off to undergo and recuperate from surgery. In his place, Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton will be joined by drummer Bram van den Berg.

A Ticketmaster Verified Fan pre-sale for the eight December dates is ongoing through Monday, May 15th. The Verified Fan pre-sale will commence on Thursday, May 18th, followed by a general on-sale on Friday, May 19th via Ticketmaster. All-in...

The Tribeca Festival has its opening-night, closing-night and centerpiece films.

Organizers said today that the documentary Kiss the Future will kick off the event on June 7 and a 30th anniversary screening of fest co-founder Robert De Niro’s A Bronx Tale will bookend it on June 17. This year’s Centerpiece Gala on June 10 will feature Disney-Pixar’s Elemental, which is set to close the Cannes Film Festival next month.

Kiss the Future, which premiered at Berlin in February, follows the story of a community of underground musicians and creatives throughout the nearly four-year siege of Sarajevo and the 1997 U2 concert celebrating the liberation of the Bosnian capital. The docu is produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Sarah Anthony and features U2’s Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton.

The Peter Sohn-directed Elemental is set in Element City, where Fire, Water, Land and Air residents live together. It follows Ember (Leah Lewis), a tough,...

Audiences are one step closer to the 2023 Tribeca Festival.

This year’s Tribeca Gala events, including the Opening, Closing, and Centerpiece film selections were unveiled Thursday. The 2023 Tribeca Festival will kick off June 7 with the North American premiere of “Kiss the Future,” a documentary following the story of a community of underground musicians and creatives throughout the nearly four-year-long siege of Sarajevo, as well as the 1997 U2 concert celebrating the liberation of the Bosnian capital.

The film serves as a testament to art’s enduring ability to cast light even in the darkest of circumstances and reflects Tribeca’s founding mission of utilizing the power of storytelling to heal communities. “Kiss the Future” is produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Sarah Anthony, and features U2’s Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton.

“Ben and I are proud of this film and are honored that it has been selected to open the Tribeca Festival,...

Now that Oscar season is over, the awards calendar is turning its full attention toward Emmys time. Streaming services and cable networks are increasing the flow of contender releases as the 2022-23 eligibility period approaches its May 31 deadline. The likely Outstanding Comedy Series winner just premiered this week. If you’re here, you probably already know what it is, so let’s get to it.

The contender to watch this week: “Ted Lasso”

Jason Sudeikis’ massively popular soccer comedy series kicked off its third and (maybe?) final season on Apple TV+ Wednesday. The show’s domination of comedy categories in 2021 and 2022 means this year’s Emmys are Ted’s to lose. In the premiere, Coach Ted (Sudeikis) inspires his players, who are down in the dumps because every pundit predicts they’ll come in last in the Premier League, by taking them on a tour of London’s sewer system.

U2’s Bono and the Edge and David Letterman joined forces again at the Wednesday night premiere of the Disney+ special “A Sort of Homecoming,” with the band members explaining that they needed the former late-night host to add some irreverence to the Morgan Neville-directed documentary, set to begin streaming March 17.

Said Bono to the audience at downtown L.A.’s Orpheum Theatre, “The thing that Dave brought — I don’t know if you agree, Edge — is that he brought the comedy to the tragedy. And you know, there’s a reason why Willie Shakespeare wrote that form. And our music is just better with him around, I thought. Musically, it was better just by him being in the room, kind of taking the piss out of it.”

The Edge tried to beat Letterman at his own game at the post-premiere Q&a. Asked why they got Letterman involved,...

In upcoming concert doc Bono and The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with Dave Letterman, U2’s Bono and The Edge return to Dublin with longtime fan David Letterman in tow.

On Wednesday evening, the stars gathered at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles to celebrate the film’s premiere. Following the screening, the trio and director Morgan Neville took the stage for a Q&a panel moderated by The Hollywood Reporter’s Nekesa Mumbi Moody.

In the Disney+ film, Letterman joins Bono and The Edge as they dive into the history of U2, Irish culture and the nearly 50-year songwriting partnership between the two friends.

“[Letterman] brought the comedy to the tragedy and there’s a reason why Shakespeare loved that form. Our music is just better with him around,” Bono praised the host. “The music is better itself just by him being in the room, taking the piss out of us.

The jokes were zipping as David Letterman got together on stage in Los Angeles Wednesday night with two of his favorite musicians – U2’s Bono and The Edge – for the world premiere of the Disney+ documentary Bono and The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with Dave Letterman. But it was The Edge who landed the first barb.

At the Q&a for the film, which revolves around Bono and Edge working on reimagined versions of U2’s canon in Dublin, with Letterman as their white-bearded interlocutor, Edge was asked why he and his bandmate thought to bring Letterman along on their cinematic journey.

“Well, being honest, the first idea was Jay Leno,” he cracked. More earnestly, he added, “We’re huge fans, have been for a long time. We’ve known Dave for many years and he was foolish enough once to invite us to play for an entire week on The Late Show.

The ongoing war in Ukraine adds a timely resonance to Nenad Cicin-Sain’s documentary about the underground art and music movement that sprung up in Sarajevo during the 1990s Bosnian War. Not that it was needed, since Kiss the Future would have the same power anytime in a world perpetually marked by armed conflict. This moving and inspirational film premiering at the Berlin Film Festival also boasts a commercial hook in the form of the band U2, who figure prominently in the proceedings via both archival footage and contemporary interviews with members Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton.

Based on the 2004 memoir Fools Rush In by Bill S. Carter, who also wrote the screenplay and provides frequent onscreen commentary, the film revolves around the nearly four-years-long Siege of Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serbs. As a result, its inhabitants were essentially trapped, including many young people who were intent on reaffirming...

In a commercial during Sunday’s Super Bowl, the Irish rock band U2 announced a series of Las Vegas shows in a UFO-themed trailer.

The U2:uv Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere residency is scheduled to take place this fall at the Msg Sphere in the Venetian resort in Las Vegas.

U2 will be the first band to perform at the new venue, which can hold up to 17,500 people.

The Mgs Sphere was originally set to open in 2021, but the Covid-19 pandemic delayed its construction until 2023.

The show is described as a “futuristic adventure in a unique desert landscape.” It’s the band’s first live performance in four years following their 30th anniversary Joshua Tree tour.

A new version of the song “One” off their 1991 album, Achtung Baby, was played during the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year presentation that honored Dallas Cowboys’ Dak Prescott.

This...

For almost four years of siege in the 1990s, the city of Sarajevo concussed from shelling, the rumblings of armored vehicles and the repeated pop of sniper fire.

But in stolen moments, other more hopeful sounds broke through: music coming from underground clubs and through TV sets whenever electricity wasn’t interrupted. Songs like U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “One.” The human need for the joy and release of music underpins the documentary Kiss the Future, which recounts how Bono and band took up the cause of Sarajevo. The documentary produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Sarah Anthony, and Drew Vinton and directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain made its world premiere tonight at the Berlin Film Festival.

The film (a sales title at the Berlinale) takes us back to 1992 when Serbia, under the barbaric leadership of President Slobodan Milošević, embarked on a campaign of territorial expansion and ethnic cleansing in...