2019-11-30

National Stadium, Singapore, Singapore

Set List of Show:

Main Set:

"Sunday Bloody Sunday"
"I Will Follow"
"New Year's Day"
"Bad"
"Pride (In the Name of Love)"
"Where the Streets Have No Name"
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
"With or Without You"
"Bullet the Blue Sky"
"Running to Stand Still"
"Red Hill Mining Town"
"In God's Country"
"Trip Through Your Wires"
"One Tree Hill"
"Exit"
"Mothers of the Disappeared"
"Angel of Harlem"

Encore:

"Elevation"
"Vertigo"
"Even Better Than the Real Thing"
"Every Breaking Wave"
"Beautiful Day"
"Ultra Violet (Light My Way)"
"One"

Additional Music

Pre-Recorded Intro Song: "The Whole of the Moon" - The Waterboys
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "Never Tear Us Apart" - INXS

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

West Side Story

Show Details:

U2 play their first ever show in Singapore. The band is playing alone tonight, there is no opening act for Singapore. It’s also been announced that there will be no opening act for Seoul, and there are no acts announced for other shows in Asia. The show starts at 8:20 local time, which is a typical start time, even though there isn’t a support act.

The stage is sideways in the venue tonight, making the venue look especially large around it. The roof is closed, but the venue is open on one side, opposite the stage, and the city can be seen through this opening. The T-shirt for night one is the moon shirt with the tree in silhouette in front of it. Poetry on the screen includes one by Singapore author Arthur Yap.

In the opening segment, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” is the first song that U2 ever play in Singapore. They include “I Will Follow” tonight, which has now become a staple on the tour. Introducing “Bad” Bono says “It took us 42 years to get here. This will be the best show we’ve ever played in Singapore! Tonight we come as pilgrims to your city.” During “Bad” Bono asks for the lights to be turned off and the audience to light up the room, and launches into a lenghthy snippet of Snow Patrol’s “Run.”

“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” is introduced as “a gospel song for people who may have lost faith.” In the introduction to “Trip Through Your Wires” Bono says “A not well known piece of information is a member of the U2 group lived in this city for a number of years…it’s that man there, Adam Clayton, the man that puts the platinum into ‘silver fox’. Adam’s father was a Royal Air Force pilot prior to taking a job with Aer Lingus, and moving to Dublin when Adam was five. Adam talks and mentions that he lived at 64 Toh Crescent.

Bono does a shortened introduction to “One Tree Hill”, pointing out that “This next song, in fact the whole album is dedicated to Greg Carroll, and giving a few basic about meeting Greg. During “Exit” Bono does his usual “Eeny Meeny Miney Mo” snippet, but tonight he adds a bit of Van Morrison’s “Gloria” as well. At the end of the song there are difficulties seen with the lights and the screen, but the production quickly comes back. At one point the screen goes completely black. After a lovely version of “Mothers of the Disappeared,” Bono introduced “Angel of Harlem” by saying “This is what happened next.”

The encore opens with “Elevation.” After “Vertigo” Bono launches into a snippet of “I Love Rock N’ Roll” leading the crowd into a singalong. During the band introductions, Bono once again brings up the fact that Adam used to live in Singapore, introducing him as “Local boy. Now wise man. Falls in love like a teenager at age 50. The first manager of U2, now bossed around by a two and a half year old girl.”

As “Beautiful Day” ends and “Ultra Violet” is introduced Bono adds a message, “When men can love men, and women can love women, it’s a beautiful day”. In Singapore, same sex relationships are not recognized under the law in any form.

“Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” is not played tonight, and the band skips right into “One.” Bono talks about the city of Singapore, “An amazing feeling to be here in this wondrous place!” and then talks about Singapore and how they’ve embraced all religions, “The most Sci-Fi thing about your city: You have religious tolerance. You reclaimed religious diversity from intolerance. We salute you. We need more of that. There’s only way into the future for all of us. And that’s if we all work together.” (“Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” was on the setlist for the show tonight, so was likely dropped due to time constraints.)

An image of the Merlion spitting water on a red background. The Merlion is the official mascot of Singapore, a mythical creature with a lion head and body of a fish and the Singapore flag is seen as well.

After the show has ended, INXS’ “Never Tear Us Apart” plays over the PA as fans leave the venue. Prior to the show, “Ahimsa,” U2’s new single was heard over the PA system as fans waited to enter the stadium. The song, however, was not played during the show.

Officially Released Tracks