MusiCares® to Honor U2 as 2027 Persons of the Year
Celebrating the 22-Time Grammy® Award-Winning Band for Five Decades of Global Musical Achievement and Humanitarian
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MusiCares® has named U2 — Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. — as the 2027 MusiCares Persons of the Year. One of the most acclaimed bands in modern music, U2 will be honored for their groundbreaking body of work and decades of using their reach, resources and music to support people and the fight for justice around the world. The 36th annual Persons of the Year benefit gala will be held at a new location, Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Friday, Feb. 5, 2027, two nights before the 2027 Grammys® at Crypto.com Arena.
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U2, Photo by Olaf Heine
“We are honored to celebrate and recognize U2 as this year’s MusiCares Persons of the Year,” said Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy® and MusiCares. “Their impact goes far beyond the stage. Not only has their music defined generations, but they’ve been equally exemplary in their dedication to humanitarian work and using their platform for good. We are so excited to come together to honor their collective artistry and commitment to giving back on this special night.”
Celebrating 50 years together as a band after meeting in their Dublin high school in 1976, U2 has won 22 Grammy® awards and sold more than 170 million albums worldwide, building a career that has spanned generations of recorded music and live performances. Alongside their music, the four members have established and supported a wide range of philanthropic and humanitarian campaigns.
From their earliest days as a young band, the members of U2 have been activists for peace, justice and human rights, first campaigning against apartheid in South Africa before they had a record deal. In 2005, the band received Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award. U2 provided early and ongoing philanthropic funding for Music Generation, Ireland’s national music education program, whose mission is to empower young people across the island of Ireland to realize their full potential through access to high-quality lessons in how to play, sing and create music.
In addition to these joint efforts, Bono co-founded sister organizations ONE and (RED) to pressure governments and businesses to do more in the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty, and he played a key role in persuading President Bush to create PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief), which has saved 26 million lives to date. Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, The Edge co-founded Music Rising to replace instruments and equipment for musicians, schools and music programs affected by disaster. Adam Clayton, who was honored with the MusiCares Stevie Ray Vaughan Award in 2017, has spoken openly about recovery and supported efforts focused on addiction and mental health, including Ireland’s Walk in My Shoes initiative. Larry Mullen Jr. has brought attention to dyslexia and learning differences through his involvement as a producer of the documentary Left Behind. These efforts represent distinct areas of focus for each member while also reflecting a history of shared activism and campaigning by the band.
“Throughout their career, U2 has demonstrated the extraordinary power of music to bring people together, draw attention to urgent needs and inspire action,” said Theresa Wolters, Executive Director of MusiCares. “Bono, The Edge, Adam, and Larry have each found meaningful ways to put their voices and resources to work for others, while together U2 has supported causes spanning global health, disaster response, addiction recovery, mental health, and access to music education. What resonates so strongly with MusiCares is their belief that success in music comes with an opportunity to care for the people around you. We are proud to recognize artists that have spent decades pairing extraordinary artistry with a genuine sense of service.”
MusiCares previously honored Bono as the 2003 MusiCares Person of the Year for his impact through both music and activism. The 2027 recognition tells a broader story: one of four bandmates who, together and through causes personal to each of them, have spent decades putting the platform of U2 in service of others. From expanding access to music and supporting people in recovery to responding to humanitarian crises and campaigning against injustice, their work reflects a shared belief in using their music and the spotlight of their success to bring about change.
“We are huge fans of MusiCares and the lifelines they provide across the incredible pool of talent that is the music industry. We’ve been recording and touring for 50 years because of that pool, from producers and engineers to carpenters and riggers. ‘Persons of the Year’ couldn’t be a better title as it’s the people we’ve been so fortunate to work with, and of course our indomitable audience, that have given us the opportunity to keep making music and keep rocking the boat on things we really care about. It’s such an honour, and we’re very excited to be in the front row of our first ever U2 gig…we know we’re gonna be outplayed,” said U2.
The MusiCares Persons of the Year ceremony is one of the most anticipated events of Grammy Week. The evening features a cocktail reception, dinner and a tribute concert with performances by renowned artists celebrating U2’s music and humanitarian work.
Since 1991, the Person of the Year gala has raised funds to support MusiCares’ programs, including health and wellness services, addiction recovery, mental health, preventive care, disaster relief, and financial assistance for music professionals. U2 joins a distinguished list of MusiCares honorees including Mariah Carey, the Grateful Dead, Jon Bon Jovi, Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson, and Joni Mitchell.
The event will again be produced by live event broadcast outfit Lewis & Clark, made up of Joe Lewis and R.A. Clark.
For the first time, MusiCares will open the tribute concert portion to a broader audience, giving more fans the opportunity to come together, celebrate and honor the band. Individual theater seats and gala dinner tables are now available for purchase at musicares.org/personoftheyear. For more information about the event or sponsorship opportunities, please visit www.musicares.org or email personoftheyear@musicares.org.
Images of U2 can be found here.
ABOUT MUSICARES
MusiCares is music’s largest charity, providing an essential safety net to the music community through comprehensive financial assistance and preventive services. We offer personalized support for mental health, addiction recovery, health care, basic living needs and disaster relief. Founded by the Grammy Organization in 1989 as a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) charity, MusiCares understands the unique realities of working in music and helps music professionals sustain their health and well-being and connect to resources throughout their careers. We help the humans behind music because music gives so much to the world. For more information, visit musicares.org.
The Grammy organization is made up of the Recording Academy, The Latin Recording Academy®, MusiCares®, the Grammy Museum®, and the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation®. For more information about the Grammys, please visit grammy.com.
ABOUT U2
Formed in Dublin in 1976, U2 have toured the globe countless times, released 15 studio albums, sold 175 million albums and won numerous awards, including 22 Grammys and Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience award. U2 were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005 and have twice been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song: in 2003 for ‘The Hands That Built America’ for Gangs of New York, and in 2014 for ‘Ordinary Love’ for Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. U2’s fourteenth studio album Songs Of Experience – the companion release to 2014’s Songs Of Innocence – was released in December 2017 debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200, setting U2 apart as the only band in history to have topped the chart in four successive decades.
In 2018, the U2 hit the road with the eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour, an arena production which saw the band continue to push the creative boundaries of technology and engineering. And following 2017’s acclaimed stadium run with The Joshua Tree Tour – the record-breaking smash hit tour celebrating the band’s seminal 1987 album The Joshua Tree – The Joshua Tree Tour took U2 to New Zealand, Australia, and Japan, as well as bring “the biggest band in the world” (The Guardian) to Singapore, Seoul, Manila and Mumbai for the very first time. In November 2019, the band released a track in collaboration with A.R. Rahman titled ‘Ahimsa’, which was performed live at Mumbai’s, D.Y. Patil Stadium. In 2020, SiriusXM and U2 announced the launch of U2 X-Radio, a complete immersion into the work and influences of the band from the Northside of Dublin, all curated by U2. Songs Of Surrender – a collection of 40 seminal U2 songs from across the band’s catalogue, re-recorded and reimagined for 2023 in sessions spanning the last two years – was released on March 17, 2023, topping the album charts around the world including the UK and Ireland.
Acknowledged as the best live acts in the world, U2 have always – since their earliest days, including the industry-defining ZOO TV Tour which broke the mold in 1991 – consistently pushed the boundaries of live performance, with ground-breaking stage shows that embrace the latest in technology and innovation most recently with U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere which lit up Las Vegas for a critically-acclaimed 40-date run to launch the world’s most state-of-the-art venue, Sphere. This ambitious creative project from the band, U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere saw U2 work once again with longtime creative collaborator and show director Willie Williams, as well as artists including Es Devlin, John Gerrard and Marco Brambilla. A brand new track titled ‘Atomic City’, produced by Jacknife Lee and Steve Lillywhite, was released on September 29, 2023 ahead of the Las Vegas shows at Sphere. The band marked the 20th anniversary of their critically-acclaimed eight-time Grammy-winning album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb with the release of a shadow album titled How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb (2024), which includes new, unreleased songs discovered in the archive of the original album recording sessions, including the tracks ‘Country Mile’ and ‘Luckiest Man In The World’.
‘Days Of Ash’, a brand new standalone 6-track EP was released on Ash Wednesday, 18 February 2026, a self-contained collection of five new songs and a poem – ‘American Obituary’, ‘The Tears Of Things’, ‘Song Of The Future’, ‘Wildpeace’, ‘One Life At A Time’ and ‘Yours Eternally’ (ft. Ed Sheeran & Taras Topolia) – which came as an immediate response to current events and inspired by the many extraordinary and courageous people fighting on the frontlines of freedom. A second, separate standalone 6-track EP titled ‘Easter Lily’ was released on Good Friday, a much more reflective set of songs emerging from a more personal, private place that some may retreat to in such times – exploring themes of friendship, loss, hope, and ultimately, renewal.
Latest track ‘Street of Dreams’ is the first song to be taken from the band’s yet-to-be announced new studio album, U2’s first in 9 years, due for release later this year.
ABOUT LEWIS & CLARK
The live broadcast production outfit, Lewis & Clark, brings together Joe Lewis, founder of the Joe Lewis Company (JLC), and R.A. Clark, president and Emmy-nominated executive producer of Lion’s Heart Entertainment. As a team, the two have overseen thousands of hours of live television programming and thousands of live consumer and fan-facing events including 2026 MusiCares Person of the Year honoring Mariah Carey, the Academy Awards Pre-Show, the Grammys®, The Academy of Country Music Awards and all NFL tentpoles to include the Super Bowl, NFL Draft, Pro Bowl, and NFL Kick-Off Concert.
The company offers full-service TV production, live event production and creative services. Their Los Angeles campus offers in-house scenic fabrication, design and printing facilities, and an entire logistics staff. Find out more at: lewisandclark.tv
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