Source: Kevin Dietsch / Getty
President Joe Biden is praising U2.
The Irish band received a lifetime artistic achievement award from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC on Sunday night, alongside actor George Clooney, singer-songwriter Amy Grant, singer Gladys Knight and composer Tania León.
Biden described the legends as, “best friends who started a band as teenagers in Dublin and became one of the greatest bands in history.”
Biden also quoted Bono during his speech, stating that “music can change the world because it can change people.”
He went on to say, “From this Irish American President in a White House designed by Irish hands, who built this and designed it, I want to thank U2 for all you’ve done and the way you lift people up. From “Sunday Bloody Sunday” to “Pride (In the Name of Love)” to “Ordinary Love” to “One,” U2 has spoken and sung about the unspeakable cost of hate and anger and division — the pain, the suffering, the denial of freedom, the senseless loss of life, and the inhumanity we inflict on one another as nations, as people, and in our own lives.”
The Edge spoke for the group at a formal presentation of the awards at the US State department saying, “We are incredibly grateful and proud to receive this honor named after a great American, John F. Kennedy, who also happens to be of Irish descent and this I have to say means so much to us.”
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