The U2 singer appeared at the Khreshatyk metro station in the Ukrainian capital. Photo: EFE/Oleg Petrasyuk.
Bono, the singer of the group U2, gave this Sunday with the band’s guitarist, The Edge, a surprise concert at a kyiv metro stationin which he praised Ukraine’s fight for “independence” and called for peace to come immediately after Russia’s invasion.
From the platform of a metro station in the Ukrainian capital, the legendary 61-year-old musician sang some of the group’s classics with his partner, such as “Blood Week”, “Desire” or “With you or without”.
“The people of Ukraine are not only fighting for their own freedom, they are fighting for all of us who love freedom,” said the singer, who arrived in kyiv just a month after releasing his song “Walk on Ukraine “dedicated to Ukrainians. victim of Russian aggression.
The performance of Bono and The Edge took place all of a suddenwithout prior notice, and within the singer’s activities for humanitarian purposes in various parts of the world, whether in situations of war, against famine, or against global confusion.
Bono and The Edge played some U2 classics on the station’s platform. Photo: Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko.
Bono’s performance —which throughout his career has worked for a variety of causes, including the fight against poverty and AIDS — took place while anti-aircraft sirens were heard in kyiv and in the east of the country the battle intensified.
“There’s nowhere in the world we’d prefer today than in the great city of kyiv,” Bono said, before playing U2’s 1988 classic “Angel Of Harlem.”
The singer also referred to past conflicts that Ireland, his country, and the problems with a more powerful neighbor. “We pray that soon they will enjoy some of that peace,” Bono said.
At one point in the concert, Bono invited a Ukrainian soldier, from the local band Antytila, to sing a version of “Stand by me”, which replaced the last verses of the Ben E. King classic with “Stand by Ukraine “.
After the concert, both musicians visited the bombed cities of Borodyanka and Irpin and the bucha mass gravea symbol of the atrocities committed by the Russian Army during its occupation.
As Bono explained to reporters, President Volodimir Zelensky asked him to attend Victory Day against Nazism, which Ukraine celebrates for the first time a day before Russia and the other former Soviet republics.
U2 musicians on their visit this Sunday to the Ukrainian town of Irpin. Photo: EFE/Lourdes Velasco.
“The Russians call Victory Day tomorrow, and this has changed,” said Bono, who also denounced the war in Ukraine it’s “one man’s war”, in reference to Putin.
In Bucha, where he is received by a priest who explains the processes of exhuming and identifying corpses, Bono is interested in how the Russian Church can explain and justify such destruction to its faithful.
Bono visited the place where a mass grave was found in Bucha, next to the church of St. Andrew and Pervozvannoho All Saints. Photo: AFP/Genya Savilov.
After visiting the tomb, the U2 singer entered the church for, he said, to be calm and quiet in a private setting.
Bono is the second international celebrity to visit Ukraine in recent days. Last week, American actress Angelina Jolie toured various shelters in the country as part of her work as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Source: Clarin