Irish singer with group U2 and social activist, raising millions of dollars as well as awareness of the poverty, famine and need for medical care that exists in many countries.
The Group U2 originally formed as the band “Feedback” in 1976. After winning a talent contest in March 1978, the band attracted a major following by early 1980. Extensive tours in the UK and US beginning in 1981 won acclaim and by early 1985, they were named the “Band of the ’80s” by Rolling Stone magazine. With the release of “The Joshua Tree” in 1987, they achieved even greater commercial sensation. A passionate social activist, Bono prompted a historic $5 billion package from the US government to help fight poverty and disease in the world’s poorest countries.
Seen in his trademark wrap-around blue shades, he is an incongruous figure alongside such notables as Jesse Helms, Pope John Paul II, and world leaders George W. Bush, Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin. With impressive communication skills, he made quite an impact on audiences at the World Economic Summit in New York where he discussed the complexities of the global economy with the likes of Bill Gates, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and Queen Noor of Jordan. A well-informed lobbyist, in June 2001 he went on a fact-finding trip to Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia with the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill. In October 2005 he secured an interview with President George W. Bush. Bono was at ease in the interview as he always seems to be, reciting scripture, peeling off facts and figures, and soliciting commitment and funds to provide debt- and famine-relief for the world’s poorest nations.
Named Paul David Hewson at birth, he is the second son of a Dublin mixed-religion marriage. His Protestant mother died of a stroke in 1974 when the boy was just 14. He remained close to his no-nonsense Roman Catholic dad, a civil servant, who died in August 2001 of cancer. In his father’s memory, Bono illustrated and produced a children’s book based on Prokofiev’s classic “Peter and the Wolf,” released in the fall of 2003. Sales of the book, packaged with a CD by his musician friend Gavin Friday, benefit the Irish Hospice Foundation. The originals of the book’s 16 illustrations by Bono were auctioned off by Christie’s in New York City on November 21, 2003.
As a child, he was a headstrong, energetic, wildly curious kid, popular with his peers and also sensitive and smart. Nicknamed “Bono” by a pal after a Dublin hearing-aid shop called Bonovox, his interests ranged from chess to painting to theater. In 1976, he answered an ad at the High School to join a band along with Larry Mullen, guitarist Dave Evans and bass player Adam Clayton. They chose their name after the famous spy plane U2. Off to a slow start, it was not until 1980 that they had a break with a record deal. In 1987 U2 scored a first for the band when its CD skyrocketed to number 1 on the Billboard charts.
With strong Christian conviction nurtured by his mother’s faith, Bono’s interest in social causes increased as he grew older. The result is a dual image; that of the party-hearty rock star and the dedicated idealist. U2’s 1983 album “War” included tracks with political themes. In 1985, the band was a major attraction for the Live Aid Concert in London. In 2000 the group participated in the Jubilee Concerts which raised millions for debt relief in Africa. Two years later, he co-founded DATA (Debt, AIDs, Trade, Africa), an organization whose mission is to “raise awareness about the crises swamping Africa: unpayable debts, uncontrolled spread of AIDS, and unfair trade rules which keep Africans poor.” His work earned him a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. And in 2005, the Live 8 Concerts showcased the band with Bono being a major contributor to the success of the concerts in raising awareness in the industrialized world of the problems facing many of the world’s poor.
Bono’s wife, Alison Stewart Hewson, whom he married in 1982, shares her husband’s concern for causes with her own special interest in ecology. The couple has four children with whom they live in Ireland when he’s not touring or urging heads of state to alleviate the suffering of millions. Critics have occasionally lambasted Bono and his wife for mixing fame and lobbying, pop music with politics. Despite a struggle balancing his commitments to his band and his social causes, his belief in both his worlds continues to drive him.
The Irish singer and his group U2 were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 14, 2005. The ceremony was held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, NY. In December 2005 he and Bill and Melinda Gates shared the “Persons of the Year” award from Time magazine in recognition of the trio’s humanitarian work individually and together.
After an accident with his bike in November 2014, he stopped playing the guitar. His concert with U2, which should have taken place at Paris Bataclan on 14 November 2015, was postponed to the 6 December.

Link to Wikipedia biography
Link to Astrodienst discussion forum