Bono made a special guest appearance during YouTube’s Dear Class of 2020 where he presented an all-star cover of U2’s 2000 hit “Beautiful Day.”
Embedded below, the cover was produced by Finneas and features vocals by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, Camila Cabello, Ty Dolla $ign, Tove Lo, Khalid, Leon Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Ben Platt and Noah Cyrus.
Before the song, Bono gives a brief address about “Beautiful Day” where he delves into the song’s meaning and what it could represent to the class of 2020.
“Now there were storm clouds over Dublin when U2 recorded ‘Beautiful Day,’ things were not as they might have been,” said Bono. “But the song was not a description of where we were at, it was a prayer for where we could go, and a dream — like America is a dream — of where we might be.”
Bono continues, “We now know that America is a song yet to be written. That America might be the greatest song the world has never heard. It’s a wild thought, that America is yet to exist. And even wilder that the Class of 2020 might be the very people to bring it into being.”