I must admit that I was worried at the beginning, I thought that the band will not give the concert a lot of attention, since it was in Istanbul, it started raining just as the show was about to start and of course there was the question of the empty stadium at the beginning.  

How wrong I was!

Let me take a step back and give some background…

U2 played their first ever show in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday 6^th of September 2010. It was part of the 360° Tour. The tour is an ongoing worldwide tour, launched last year in support of the group’s 2009 album “No Line on the Horizon.” The tour is named after the 360-degree stage that they use in their tour and which costs around 26 million dollars every time they mantle and dismantle it! Basically, every few days!

The stage looked like a gigantic space ship, the light show and the messages shown throughout the show were magnificent. Nevertheless, the band did not allow us (the audience) to be distracted by all that dazzling show because the music was GREAT!

Bono sang 24 songs, by the end I was thinking to myself Allah ya3teeh il 3afieh! I can’t believe that his voice could go on till the end.

The songs they played were the following

1. Return Of The Stingray Guitar
2. Beautiful Day / Always Forever Now (snippet)
3. New Year’s Day
4. Get On Your Boots
5. Magnificent
6. Mysterious Ways / My Sweet Lord (snippet)
7. Elevation
8. Until The End Of The World
9. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
10. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
11. In A Little While
12. Miss Sarajevo
13. City Of Blinding Lights
14. Vertigo
15. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight / Discothèque (snippet) / John I’m Only Dancing (snippet)
16. Sunday Bloody Sunday / Get Up Stand Up (snippet)
17. Mothers Of The Disappeared
18. Yiğidim Aslanım Burda Yatıyor
19. Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone (snippet)

encore(s):

1. One
2. Amazing Grace (snippet) / Where The Streets Have No Name
3. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
4. With Or Without You
5. Moment of Surrender

Politics

As we all know, politics have always been part of U2’s concerts. Our breaths were held in anticipation of the cause that Brono was going to support.  The one thing we can say about Turkey is that the political situation there is not simple or straight forward!

Before the show, the band visited with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, partied in the city and hiked across Istanbul’s Bosphorus Bridge. RTT and Hurriyet news have reported on  Bono’s visit before the concert.

Obviously, Bono mentioned the visit and the walk on the bridge that connects Europe to Asia, and even though he did not particularly mention Erdogan on stage, he received a strong boo  from the crowd once he thanked someone called “Egemen Bagis” for helping them cross the Bosphauros bridge on foot. The name did not mean anything to us, but after the concert I googled him to know that he is State Minister and chief negotiator. Sounded like he is not very popular.

Bono was smart; he said “ok, I will not name politicians anymore. Is it Ok to talk about the bridge?” the crowds applauded and he said “it is a beautiful bridge!” He then talked about the importance of the bridge because it connects the secular and the religious, east and west, past and future…

The interesting part was that he dedicated “ Mothers of the Disappeared” to someone called Fehmi Tosun, whose family was there that evening. We had no idea who he was, but then we realized that he was a Kurdish activist who disappeared in 1995 while in custody. Bono had mentioned Fehmi on the cover o f the 1997 album “pop”.  At that moment a Turkish politician called Zilfu Livaneli came on stage to sing some heartbreaking turkish song. The song was popular in the funerals of activist and journalists who were killed by the State in the 1990s.  EVERYONE was singing along.  Zulfu is a protest singer and a  famous columnist.

On the screen, the band showed pictures of Sukaina Mohamedi Ashtiani;  she is an Iranian Azeri woman who has been convicted of murder and adultery. She has been on death row in Iran since 2006. Her controversial case became internationally known in 2010 after high profile reports that she was convicted for the crime of adultery and sentenced to execution by stoning.

He also showed bits of a speech done by Desmond Tutu  to introduce the NGO One. Which is supported heavily by U2.

By the way by the time we left there were 50,000 people attending the concert with us!

All in all, it was a great great concert. 

These wonderful people came to give the people of Natheef a concert. I was very worried, as the consensus here is that music is 7aram. At the time of the concert the hall filled with people, mostly children… they heard about something called a “concert” and curiosity drove them there.

Like me, these children realized that their lives have been unmusical. I felt a pang in my heart for our children who are deprived of everything, while in Scotland children start learning music at the age of 8.

In our schools music has zero importance… hell, in some schools children are zero important! People are too busy with contradictions… they are still debating whether music is 7aram or halal…. but they don’t mind trashy commercial music… (If it is Arabic, then it is less 7aram for some odd reason)

It truly saddened me to see how happy the children were after the concert. I wondered how we are expected to be creative or to think out of the box… ?

This child asked a very inspiring question: “What do I have to have in order to be able to play music” Donald answered: “ you have it! What would you like to play?” “ The guitar”, Mohammad answered.