Irish rock band U2 have created a number of great songs for movies over the years with the most recent being Ordinary Love for 2013’s biopic Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom which starred Idris Elba.
In 2014 the song won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and was nominated for Best Original Song at the 86th Academy Awards. Watch and listen to Ordinary Love above.
So, press the top left play button on the above feature image so the music video can play for you.
According to U2’s website, the band members had been friends with Nelson Mandela for decades. As part of that, they worked with Mandela on anti-AIDs initiatives and even visited Robben Island with him, the site where he spent some of his 27 years in prison. Mandela, a controversial figure for some, a hero for others, died in 2013.
U2’s other tracks written for movies begins with Until the End of the World for the Wim Wenders’ 1991 film of the same name that starred William Hurt and Solveig Dommartin. The track also appeared on their much-loved 1991 album Achtung Baby.
In 1993 they created Faraway so Close for another Wender’s film Wings of Desire. In that same year Bono teamed up with English artist Gavin Friday to sing In the Name of the Father for the Jim Sheridan film of the same name which stared Daniel Day-Lewis as one of four people falsely accused of being IRA terrorists.
U2 made Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me for 1995’s Batman Forever while in the same year Bono and the Edge wrote Golden Eye for the James Bond movie (again of the same name) which was sung by Tina Turner. Watch a live version of the Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me here from U2VEVO:
Also in 1995 the band created Your Blue Room for Beyond the Clouds (another Wender’s film) which was released as part of an album that featured songs for (mostly imaginary) movies. For some reason, they went with Passengers as a pseudonym.
U2’s bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. did the anthem song for the 1996 action Mission: Impossible – a track that did well on the charts.
Bono teamed up with Sinead O’Connor in 1997 to sing I’m Not Your Baby for The End of Violence, another Wender’s film. Three years later they again supplied a song for yet one more Wender’s film The Million Dollar Hotel with the track The Ground Beneath her Feet.
In 2002, the band received an Oscar nomination for The Hands That Built America which was part of Martin Scorsese’s epic The Gangs of New York.
Many of their regular tracks, such as Where the Streets have No Name (Fearless) and Elevation (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider), have also been used as part of movie soundtracks.
For an acoustic version of Ordinary Love see this U2VEVO video from their appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: