Bono’s tribute to ‘Stars of David’
BONO has paid tribute to the ‘beautiful kids’ killed at an Israeli music festival over the weekend amid the brutal Israel-Palestine conflict.
The singer and activist, 63, joined his U2 bandmates at their latest Las Vegas concert at Sphere on Monday night where he showed his support for those impacted by the war.
On Saturday, Hamas fighters attacked 3,500 revellers at the event. So far, the bodies of 260 festivalgoers have been recovered at the Re’im kibbutz site.
During the U2 show, Bono changed the lyrics to the band’s 1984 hit Pride (In the Name of Love) to refer to those killed by Hamas fighters as ‘stars of David’.
Before beginning the song Bono said: ‘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 beautiful kids at that music festival.’
During the instrumental Bono added: ‘Sing for our brothers and sisters – who they themselves were singing at the Supernova Sukkot festival in Israel.
‘We sing for those. Our people, our kind of people, music people. Playful, experimental people. Our kind of people. We sing for them,’ the U2 front man continued.
Bono next altered the lyrics as he sang: ‘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.’
The original lyrics to the song, which is dedicated to American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, read: ‘Early morning, April 4, a shot rings out in the Memphis sky. Free at last, they took your life, they could not take your pride.’