Days of Ash: Airplay, Charts, Bono and The Edge
Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2026-02-28)
It has been some time since U2 had a collection of new music out. The new EP, “Days of Ash“ seems to be doing very well. What a way to kick off a year that promises to be a busy one for new music from the band.
This article will touch on some of the promotion of the new EP and songs, radio airplay, quotes from the band and others about the new EP. We did an initial follow up like this a few days after the release of the album which you may also be interested in. You can find some of the thoughts of the team here at U2Songs in our news archive as well.
The songs are doing very well at radio, not just on sales charts, but also on airplay charts which track plays on radio. In the UK, the Top 50 Radio Airplay numbers for this week show that “Song of the Future” is doing very well. The song charts at #23 on its first week in the charts. It is the highest placed new song on the charts, beating out new music from Luke Combs, Bad Bunny and Hilary Duff. That’s not a bad showing at all.
Over in Italy “Song of the Future” is the most listened to rock song in airplay again this week, the second week in a row. And although “Song of the Future” has been identified as the radio single in Italy, it hasn’t stopped all of the other songs from hitting the EarOne Airplay Rock Chart. “Song of the Future” is at #1, “Yours Eternally” has peaked at #28 so far, “The Tears of Things” has peaked at #34, “American Obituary” has peaked at #40 and “One Life At a Time” peaked at #50. The only track not appearing on the Rock Airplay Charts is the poem, “Wildpeace”.
We are tracking charts, in Italy and beyond, over in our “Days of Ash“ discography entry.
The airplay for this EP has been really good outside of the US and Italy as well. Worldwide outside of these countries it is “Song of the Future” getting the bulk of the airplay as well. “Song of the Future” has nearly three times the amount of airplay that the next song has gotten, “Yours Eternally” worldwide. “American Obituary” is down in third position, with about 25% of the airplay that “Song of the Future” has reached.
The countries with the most airplay? Italy, USA and Germany remain out in front, followed by the United Kingdom, Poland, Spain, France, Argentina, and Australia with Ireland coming in tenth spot overall for airplay.
The popularity of “Song of the Future” isn’t by accident
Promotional releases are being sent out to radio stations and DJs by Universal Records. We’ve started tracking those with two new discography entries, one for the “Days of Ash” promo releases, and another for the “American Obituary“ promo single.
“American Obituary” is being pushed to radio in North America. Outside of North America, “American Obituary” is getting far less attention on radio, and “Song of the Future” has been chosen as the radio single in most countries. In a few countries “Yours Eternally” has been sent out as a standalone song, and in these countries (Germany, Argentina) it is the most played song of the EP.
Additionally the song “Yours Eternally” is being pushed everywhere, including North America, in video formats, with the video marking the 4th anniversary of the Russian invasion arriving earlier in the week, and now being distributed via promo services.
We’ll repeat our word of caution from last week. The promotional activity is being done digitally, and not through physical CDs. We are already seeing people taking advantage of people’s desire to have a physical copy by offering fakes.
U2 has a station on the subscription platform SiriusXM. The new EP is in high rotation on the station. All five songs are being played. “Wildpeace” is being included at the end of “Song of the Future” in some cases, or played separate in others.
Gavin Friday spoke briefly about the “Days of Ash” EP calling it “a proper punk drop from U2 messing up the corporate algorhythm hopefully, and a relevant and poignant release in these very troubled times.” Gavin is listed as creative consultant on the EP itself.
Gavin also recently made an appearance on The Michael Anthony Show, for a two hour conversation which included discussion of recording “Thief of Your Heart”, U2’s politics, the price of U2’s fame, answers the question if he likes U2 and more. The podcast was published yesterday and you can watch it now.
Bono and The Edge have also done a series of introductions to the “Days of Ash” songs for SiriusXM. A few highlights from these introductions include:
- Bono: “I started writing the lyric for ‘American Obituary’ the day after the killing of Renée Nicole Macklin Good. I tell you it shook the world, a young mother shot dead in broad daylight in her car leaving three children behind. A woman committed to non-violent civil disobedience whose family then had to face the further indignity of her being described as a domestic terrorist. That was the final straw for so many. That’s when the world realized we were dealing with something much bigger than the killing of a peaceful protester in her own country by people appointed by the government. Renée had spent time in Northern Ireland as part of a Christian youth mission. Domestic terrorist? I don’t think so. This is an attempt to assassinate meaning itself, the meaning of words, the meaning of truth, and if you let people away with that you can kiss your democracy goodbye.”
- The Edge: “This particular song is called ‘American Obituary’ and it is dedicated to Renée Good and it is our response to the events that we saw unfolding in Minneapolis which culminated in her death. Which we believe most Americans are appalled by and we just want to encourage you, the people of America, by saying we believe in you and your country and we believe this is NOT what you would want. And we stand by Renee Good’s family and we expect that this will be a turning point. A watershed moment towards a change of direction. We think democracy is important.”
- Bono: “One of my favourite tunes is ‘Song of the Future’. It was inspired by the school girl uprising in Iran, and the movement it inspired. It was just thrilling. People love freedom so much that they would risk their life. In fact, over 500 were killed in 2022 when we started this song including 16-year old student Sarina Esmailzadeh. ‘Sarina, Sarina’ is the chorus. She is the star, inspired by another incredible woman called Mahsa Amini, who was killed by the so-called ‘morality police’. Yeah we dedicate ‘Song of the Future’ to these incredible women. It’s very moving, to me, at least that the song segues into a kind of instrumental music with Jacknife Lee and a poem by Yehuda Amichai called ‘Wildpeace’. So many people lost their lives fighting for freedom in Iran. This segue into ‘Wildpeace’, this poem by Yehuda Amichai I find very moving. Perhaps because it’s recited by Nigerian artist Adeola. That African lilt just seems to suggest that this song is a prayer for peace. It’s a poem for peace written by this extraordinary Israeli poet. It has applications everywhere in the world including south of the Sahel. She has a beautiful voice.”
- Bono: “It feels like a while since U2 released a collection of songs. This is the “Days of Ash” EP. Very proud of it. None of these songs is on the new album, which we are still working on, might even have ready for the end of the year, you never know. We’ve more than 25 songs in the works, I’d say, but this is five songs and a poem. These songs are, yes, more songs of lamentation than celebration. It’s sort of where we’re at, rather than where we are going. Songs for the moment that we are in, that we wish we weren’t.”
We’ll try to write up a few more of these the next time we look in on the promotion of the album.
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