Zooropa tour U2

During U2’s 1993 “Zooropa-tour”, satellite connections were established between concert venues and Sarajevo on thirteen occasions, starting with a concert in Bologna in July 1993. The story is told in detail in the book “Fools rush in” by Bill Carter, a member of the aid organisation The Serious Road Trip, who started this initiative. The original idea was to bring U2 for a concert to besieged Sarajevo, but this was abandoned for security reasons. Alternatively, live video transmissions via satellite were organized between U2’s concert venues and Sarajevo’s tv building, where Bill Carter and Sarajevo friends of his talked during the concerts about the situation and life in the besieged city, each time in front of tens of thousands of concert visitors. Some media and participants were critical about this mix of rock entertainment and human tragedy, but on the other hand the video transmissions allowed a very big amount of people to get in direct touch with the realities of the Bosnian war at least for a moment.

Following these satellite transmissions, U2’s lead singer Bono continued his involvement regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina. He co-produced Bill Carter’s documentary movie “Miss Sarajevo”, and then also wrote with Brian Eno the song with the same title, dedicated to the people of Sarajevo, which he performed the first time in 1995. Fulfilling a promise they had made during the war, U2 then also came to Sarajevo in 1997 where they performed in front of a crowd of 50.000 persons, a concert which is still remembered as the most important music event in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the end of the war.