See Bono Grab a Star in U2’s New ‘Song for Someone’ Video
Bono sings U2‘s “Song for Someone” from a vantage point in the clouds in the new video for the group’s latest Songs of Innocence single. As a man trips and falls on the earth below, the frontman croons words of support, reaching into the night sky to grab a star as he sings, “There is a light / Don’t let it go out.” Filmmaker Matt Mahurin, who previously directed the band’s “Love Is Blindness” and “With or Without You” videos, helmed the black & white clip, which premiered on Facebook.
It’s the group’s second video for the song, following the nine-minute short film starring Woody Harrelson in July. That version centered on the release of a prisoner (the Natural Born Killers actor) who meets with his daughter, Harrelson’s real-life child Zoe. Video director Vincent Haycock, who’s also made clips for Paul McCartney and Lana del Rey, helmed that version.
While both videos offer dramatic interpretations of the tune, Bono wrote the song about his wife Ali, whom he met when they were both teenagers. “My ideas about love are probably very unromantic,” he told Rolling Stone last year. “I see love as a decision not made in the heat of the moment. I see it as an enduring thing that doesn’t depend on feelings to verify it, though it’s great when they do. And in the end, love is often DNA tricking you into making a much bigger commitment. It’s what happened to me, before I even knew what commitment was. I ended up as a young man in the arms of this young woman, in a world somewhat hostile to the concept of the childhood sweetheart and a first love.”
The track has been a staple of the group’s recent Innocence + Experience tour so far. The band wrapped the North American leg of their trek in July and will kick off their European tour in Italy next month. When U2 reach Paris on November 14th, they will film the show for broadcast on HBO the same day. One week prior, HBO will also run a documentary about the making of the tour.