During their residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, U2 paid tribute to the victims of the Israeli music festival ©AP Photo/John LocherCelebrated Irish rockers U2 paid tribute to the massacred victims of the Supernova music festival in Israel during one of their shows at the Sphere in Las Vegas, where the band is in the midst of a 25-show residency.
U2 played their 1984 hit “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and dedicated it to the hundreds of music fans who were killed, referring to them as “Stars of David” in the rewritten lyrics.
“Sing for our brothers and sisters – who themselves sang at the Supernova Sukkot festival in Israel,” Bono said. “We sing for those. Our people, our kind of people, the music people. Playful and experimental people. Our kind of people. Let’s sing for them.”
Bono continued: “In light of what happened in Israel and Gaza, a song about nonviolence seems somewhat ridiculous, even ridiculous, but our prayers have always been for peace and for nonviolence… But our hearts and our anger, you know where it is indicated. He then sings with us… and with those beautiful kids at that music festival”.
Bono changed the first verse of the song to reference the massacre in Israel instead of the death of Martin Luther King Jr.
“Early in the morning, October 7th, the sun is rising in the desert sky,” he sang. “Stars of David, they took your life but they couldn’t take your pride.”
The original lyrics of the song, dedicated to the American civil rights leader, read: “Early in the morning, on April 4, a shot rings out in the sky over Memphis. Finally free, they took your life, they couldn’t take your pride.
The attack on music fans by Hamas took place on Saturday 7 October at the Supernova festival. The all-night electronic music festival, which coincided with the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, was held in the desert in southern Israel, three miles from the Gaza Strip border.
At the time of writing, according to the rescue agency Zaka, more than 260 bodies have been recovered from the festival scene, and many more are still missing. About 3,500 people attended the festival.
