During their concert at the Las Vegas Sphere, and U2 altered the lyrics of “Pride (In the Name of Love)” to pay tribute to the victims of the Hamas raid at the Supernova music festival. The casualties were reported to Bonobe 260, killed by about fifty terrorists who opened fire on the attendees and kidnapped an unspecified number.
“In light of what has happened in Israel and Gaza,” Bono said as he introduced “Pride,” “a song about nonviolence may seem ridiculous, if not laughable, but we have always prayed for peace and nonviolence.” He continued, visibly moved: “You know where our hearts and anger are directed. So sing with us… for those beautiful kids at the festival.”
The famous part of the song that tells of the assassination of Martin Luther King (mistakenly mentioning the time, as it happened at 6 in the evening) originally went: “Early morning, April 4, shot rings out in the Memphis sky. Free at last, they took your life, they could not take your pride”. In the version at the Sphere, it became: “Early morning, October 7, the sun is rising in the desert sky. Stars of David, they took your life but they could not take your pride.”
In the light of what’s happened in Israel and Gaza, a song about non-violence seems somewhat ridiculous, even laughable, but our prayers have always been for peace and for non-violence…
But our hearts and our anger, you know where that’s pointed. So sing with us… and those… pic.twitter.com/S1zfCMNtzz
— U2 (@U2) October 9, 2023