Need of the Hour with U2 and Peace

Irish rock band U2 wrapped up their two-year Joshua Tree World Tour, commemorating 30 years of their seminal 1987 album, with a concert in India, (their first time ever) treating the audience to several of their greatest hits at the D.Y. Patil stadium in Navi Mumbai, this weekend.

Though there were rumours of A.R. Rahman opening for the band, the Oscar-winning musician showed up only for the penultimate song of the night. Rahman and U2 performed a collaborative single with frontman “Bono”, guitarist the Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. The song, ‘Ahimsa’ was about non-violence recorded specifically in light of the Irish band’s performance in the city – talk about timing.

Opening with ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday,’ lead singer Bono ploughed through the first three songs before addressing the audience during ‘Pride (In the Name of Love)’. The final act of the evening included a particularly inspiring rendition of ‘Ultra Violet’ asking for equal rights for women and the plea for them to be safe in their own homes and streets. The song accompanied visuals of strong women who have “rewritten history,” including Karuna Nundy, the Gulabi gang, Arundhati Roy, Gauri Lankesh, Amrita Shergill, and Smriti Irani alongside Rana Ayyub. The show finally ended with ‘One’.

For the Indian audiences, Bono heavily alluded to peace, Mahatma Gandhi, Satyagraha and a light dose of Hindi including, “Kaise ho? (How are you?).” As conclusion, the band walked off the stage to the Tricolour lighting up the screen.

The U2 band clearly has a lot of fans in India. Amongst all the attendees, Bollywood big-shots landed at the venue to enjoy the grand gig. Big names like Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Hrithik Roshan, Anurag Kashyap and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar along with his wife made a dashing entry at the concert.

An iconic career, multiple awards, and a whole lot fo strife later, U2 shared their music with India, and we thank them.