CHARACTERS

Curiosities you may not know about Bono: U2 frontman turns 63 today

Paul David Hewson, aka Bono Vox and then simply Bono since the founding of the band U2, was born in Dublin on 10 May 1960.

Singer-songwriter, activist, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Bono is one of the most popular figures in music, not least for his commitment to social issues, which he supports together with his wife Alison Stewart, whom he married in 1982.

Despite a very complicated childhood, Bono never gave up and today his music is still much loved by fans all over the world. Here are some interesting facts you might not have known about him!

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Happy birthday Bono!
Paul David Hewson, aka 'Bono Vox' and later simply 'Bono', was born in Dublin on 10 May 1960. Singer-songwriter, activist, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Bono is one of music's most popular figures for his commitment to social issues, and leader of U2. Despite a very complicated childhood, Bono never gave up and today his music is still loved by fans all over the world. Here are some interesting facts you might not have known about him!
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The origin of the name "Bono"
Paul Hewson, this is Bono's real name, as a young man joined a group of rebellious boys in his neighbourhood, Lipton Village. In this gang, everyone was assigned a nickname. For Paul, 'Bono Vox' was chosen. This nickname took its cue from a Dublin hearing aid shop, Bonavox. Paul did not like this name, but changed his mind when he discovered that in Latin this pseudonym meant 'beautiful voice' (although the correct version is Bona Vox, female). Later, with the debut of U2, 'Bono Vox' was reduced to 'Bono'.
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Singer, but also writer and screenwriter
In addition to writing U2's song lyrics, Bono has had further experiences in the literary field: among them, he wrote the screenplay for 'The Million Dollar Hotel', a 2000 film directed by Wim Wenders starring Jeremy Davies, Mel Gibson and Milla Jovovich.
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The song "One" is not a love song
Reading and listening to the lyrics of 'One', written by Bono, one immediately thinks of the description of a difficult love relationship between two people who are unable to keep their relationship stable due to constant quarrels. However, the real theme is the difficulty in overcoming loss: most probably, in 'One' Bono described his childhood and his complicated relationship with his father, his only point of reference after the death of his mother, which occurred when the future U2 frontman was only 14 years old.
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Bono has been nominated for an incredible amount of awards or honors, not only musical
Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, included in the list of the 100 most influential people in the music world by Time, but not only that: in 2005, the U2 frontman was awarded Person of the Year with Bill and Melinda Gates. An incredible career, considering that Bono has also received nominations for Oscars, Golden Globes and Grammys, in which U2 is the band that has won on the most occasions (22 times). But that's not all: On 29 March 2007, the Irish singer also received the title of Sir from Queen Elizabeth II.
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Why does Bono always wear sunglasses?
Although he is very careful about his look, Bono does not wear sunglasses as a purely aesthetic choice. The singer-songwriter, in fact, suffers from myodesopsia, a visual disorder characterised by the presence of threadlike or punctiform moving bodies inside the eye.
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