Bono | U2 | Paul David Hewson

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Bono

Profession: Musician
Place/Date of Birth: Dublin, Ireland, 10 May 2020

"These statistics are not just numbers on a page," Bono said. "They are people begging for their lives, for two pills a day, a mother begging to immunise her children, a child begging not to become a mother at the age of 12."

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Biography

Born Paul David Hewson in Dublin 1960, Bono has gone on to become one of the biggest names in the international music industry.

The name Bono derives from the days prior to U2 and roughly translates from Latin as ‘good voice’. He was christened as such during his teenage years, initially after a hearing aid shop in Dublin – he sang so loudly that his friends used to say he was singing for the deaf. Despite it’s early origins and perhaps not so flattering connotations the name stuck.

It was in 1976 that Bono took his first step on the music ladder when he responded to an ad to form a rock band. Alongside The Edge, Dick Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr., The Hype was formed – when Dick Evans left the group the remaining four changed the name to U2.

The band went onto release a catalogue of prestigious albums, such as The Joshua Tree and War, which alongside offering mainstream recognition, spoke of social and political themes. Bono’s often outspoken criticisms of the political unrest in Ireland earned him a bit of a reputation - to the point that Provisional IRA paramilitaries threatened to kidnap him following his ‘f*ck the revolution’ speech.

It was at roughly this time that Bono made a public announcement, via Rolling Stone magazine, about his motivations to become actively involved in social and political causes. Alongside his participation with Band Aid and Live Aid projects, he has performed in aid of Amnesty. In more recent years his campaigning has grown to involve active work for the eradication of third world debt and awareness of the plight of both poverty and AIDS in Africa.

His political work has taken him around the world as much as his musical career and in the past decade he has met a number of world leaders, including President George W Bush. He has also be influential in establishing a number of working models that aim to ease to plight of poverty, including DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), EDUN and Product Red.

His work has not gone unnoticed. In 2003, 2005 and 2006 Bono was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, he has twice been named as one of the ‘100 most influential people’ of the year by Time magazine – in 2005 he came top of the poll alongside Bill and Melinda Gates. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary Knighthood to the British Empire, whilst Portugal awarded him an Order of Liberty and Chile gave him an International Presidential medal of honour.

Updated May 2007

October 2007