Bono Fun Facts – Biography – U2
1) Paul David Hewson, nicknamed Bono, is a member of Irish rock band U2 and an activist. He was born on 10 May 1960 in the city of Dublin in Ireland. He was born to a Roman Catholic father Brendon Robert Hewson, who worked in a post office and protestant mother Iris Elizabeth Rankin, his mother died when he was only fourteen years old.
2) He joined the band U2 in the year 1976 when he was still in his high school and was the lead singer of the band; he was nicknamed Bono that was deduced from a Latin word “Bonavox” which means “good voice”. Initially, when he joined the band U2, Bono’s stage presence was far more compelling than his vocals.
3) After the release of their first album called “Boy” in the year 1980, U2 started to engage in music tours. They reached the height of stardom with the release of their sixth album named “Joshua Tree”. This album not only made U2 famous as a band, but Bono its front face and a success worldwide.
4) Bono’s life became traumatic after his mother expired. He was never close to his father and claimed that his father never encouraged him to have big goals in life. In many of his interviews, Bono has said that this attitude of his father was the reason that he had great ambitions and was determined to make his dreams come to reality.
5) Bono throughout his musical career has been socially active, he is not only the front man for the band, but is also the lyricist for most of their songs. He has written lyrics concentrating on unconventional themes like religion and politics.
6) Bono is also an activist and in the year 2006, he collaborated with another band by the name of Green Day who is a punk band. They jointly recorded a track called “The Saints Are Coming”; this track was made to address the consequences of Hurricane Katrina and reconstruction of the New Orleans.
7) In the year 2007, Bono along with his band U2 sang the title song for the Instant Karma, which is a campaign launched by Amnesty International to save and protect the impoverished region of Western Sudan.
8) Bono has successfully used his stardom to create awareness around the globe about many social issues. He has met with many United States politicians and other prominent leaders from around the world and discussed with them issues like debt alleviation for the third world countries, AIDS awareness and prevention in Africa and increasing world poverty.
9) Bono is among those celebrities who have invested their time and strength in many causes, he also created a non-profit organization DATA (Debt AIDS Trade Africa) in the year 2004. This organization aims at eliminating poverty and fighting AIDS in Africa.
10) Bono’s songs receive critical acclaim worldwide. His track “Beautiful Day” won the award for Song of The Year and Grammy Award for Record of the year. His tracks like “You Can’t Make It on Your Own” and “Vertigo” topped the charts and also received multiple Grammy awards.
11) Bono is also engaged in a campaign called “Make Poverty History”; this campaign is not affiliated with any political party and has a support base of more than hundred non-profit organizations. Many celebrities apart from Bono like Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck support this cause.
12) In the year 1976, Bono started dating Alison Stewart, who is known as Ali and the both tied the knot on 21st August, 1982. They have four children together named Jordan, Memphis Eve, Elijah and John Abraham. He resides in Dublin with his family.
13) Bono of U2 and his other two band members Larry and Edge joined a Christian group called Shalom, which was based in Dublin. Bono was mistrustful of the formal religions as he thought it divided people. Thus, Shalom as a group was not a denomination and it allowed them to practice religion harmoniously and peacefully.
14) In 2005, Bono with his wife collaborated with fashion designer Rogan Gregory and started a clothing line by the name of EDUN. EDUN labeled itself as a socially responsible clothing line, which provided a range of clothing options for both genders, it is a profit based venture but aims at promoting free trade and employment opportunities in countries facing economic crisis. This clothing line is environmentally friendly and is sold at a reasonable price.
15) Bono has gained much acclaim for his charitable endeavors and Time Magazine named him the Person of the Year for his contributions to the society. In 2007, Queen Elizabeth also awarded him position of Honorary Knight in the great British Empire.
16) He was nominated for Nobel Prize earlier in the year 2003 but he finally got the Nobel Peace Prize called Man of Peace in 2008 because of his humanitarian work worldwide and campaigns to raise AIDS awareness in Africa.
17) Bono wears sunglasses all the time, but these sunglasses are not merely a fashion statement set by the rock ‘n’ roll icon. He wears these glasses because his eyes are overly sensitive to the light.
18) Bono has risen to the heights of stardom and used his fames to help the humanity. Some of the best universities of the world have given him honorary degrees. He has also been editor to some of the world’s most renowned publications like the Independent newspaper in the United Kingdom and Vanity Fair that is published in United States.
19) Bono has also done few acting projects. In 1999 he acted in the film called “The Million Dollar Hotel” which he also co-wrote with Nicholas Klein. He did a guest appearance in the film called “Entropy”. In the movie “Across the Universe” which was released in the year 2007, he played the role of a psychedelic leader.
20) In 2007, Bono also published a book by the name of “On the Move”, in this book Bono has argued that west can help the poor third world countries and bring about a positive change by increasing the financial aid slightly.
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