U2 Returns to the Forefront of Engaged Music with EP ‘Days of Ash’ There are songs that are born out of the urgency of a situation. Pieces written in parallel to situations that revolt. With Days of Ash, a six-track EP, the Irish band U2 returns to the forefront of engaged music and embraces what many would avoid: sticking to a blazing current reality. ICE raids, war in Ukraine, genocide in Gaza: the band tackles contemporary fractures without metaphorical comfort, without detour. Bono says: “These tracks couldn’t wait, they demanded to be released.”
Can good political music be made on the fly? In an era where everything ignites and burns quickly, can music truly create a shockwave?
Political Stances in Music: A Recipe Made in U2 In this new project, the band directly addresses the fractures of the current world. “These are songs of challenge, consternation, and lamentation,” explains the band on their official site. The track American Obituary is dedicated to a protester, a mother, killed during an ICE operation in Minneapolis. In Song of the Future, they pay tribute to Sarina Esmailzadeh, a 16-year-old Iranian teenager beaten to death after participating in the “Woman, Life, Liberty” movement. In One Life at a Time, the group draws inspiration from the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land (2025): the track was written for Awdah Hathaleen, a consultant on the film, who was killed in his village in the West Bank by an Israeli settler. In Yours Eternally, U2 chooses a symbolic collaboration with Ed Sheeran and Ukrainian singer Taras Topolia. The Tears of Things addresses the conflict between Israel and Gaza, and Wildpeace the one that prevails on the African continent.
What stands out is how U2 seems to avoid the “protest song” by relying on references and images other than the blazing current events. Since the 1980s, U2 has addressed politics in their songs. The track Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1983) was written against the backdrop of the Northern Irish conflict, following the massacre in Londonderry. The song has become a global peace anthem. “This song is not a rebellious song,” Bono has explained hundreds of times.
When Parisien questions the band’s commitment, guitarist The Edge responds that this has always been a major subject for the group: With Sunday, Bloody Sunday, “we found the combination of music, activism, and popularity to try to advocate for peace and convey political messages,” he explains.
The Protest Song: From Springsteen to Macklemore, Artists Singing Their Engagement U2 is not the only band making politically engaged music in response to current events. With Street of Minneapolis, Bruce Springsteen admits to having written this track in urgency: he wrote it on a Saturday, in response to the death of Alex Pretti, killed by ICE, recorded it on Tuesday, and released it on Wednesday. He explains that he composed the song in direct response to the violence committed by the immigration police. The singer is widely known for his “protest songs”: in 1984, with Born in the USA, he denounced the Vietnam War. Far from the patriotic appropriation made by Donald Trump. Here is an example of a political song that has been “as poorly understood as it has been misused,” according to the media Slate.
In May 2024, American rapper Macklemore unveiled a new track, Hind’s Hall, in support of the Palestinians in Gaza and the cause’s protesters. “The blood is on your hands, Biden, we can all see it. And damn no, I won’t vote for you in the fall,” he sings. The track was widely shared on social media.
In France, Political Music is Also Sung And in France? With Le monde de demain by NTM, Sacrifice de poulets by Ministère A.M.E.R., Brûle by Sniper, Marine by Diam’s, Lettre à la république by Kery James, the list is long and paints a tangible picture of the French rap’s habit of also engaging with current events.
Just a Slogan? If the lyrics have been criticized, this track tells of something more precious: the ability of a genre to unite when history accelerates. “I participated in this track and it is very important to me because I grew up in the legacy of very sharp, committed French rap that inspired me a lot. Culture has something to say and is meant to express itself on these types of subjects. I come from a generation where rap is inseparable from the message,” explained the rapper to Parisien.
At the heat of the moment, political music risks being just a slogan. But sometimes, the slogan becomes a classic. Today, lyrics like those of Marine by Diam’s are sung by young people at demonstrations against the far right. There is no magical recipe, but writing in the heat often involves designating what is wrong and responding with one’s own weapons: a phrase, a melody, a rhythm.
