U2 receives top honours
2005-08-15 10:18
Lisbon - Portugal's president Jorge Sampaio on Sunday awarded Irish rock band U2 one of the nation's highest honours in recognition of their humanitarian efforts on behalf of African poverty and human rights issues.
Sampaio personally pinned the Order of Liberty on each of the four members of the band - lead singer Bono, guitar player The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen - at a ceremony held at his official residence.
It is the first time Portugal has awarded the Order of Liberty to a foreign music group.
"It is of course for the four of us a great, great honour," said Bono, who appealed for Europe to do more to alleviate poverty in Africa in a short speech after the ceremony.
U2 and it's mission
"If we really believed that an African life was equal to a European life we would not stand by with watering cans while an entire continent was bursting into flames," he added.
The Dublin four will wrap up the European leg of their latest world tour later on Sunday with a sold-out concert at Lisbon's 52 000-seat Alvalade stadium.
U2 have spearheaded a global push to tackle African poverty, most recently during last month's Live 8 concert in London, and have lobbied on behalf of several human rights causes.
Last year the band launched a song, Walk On, which is dedicated to Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner who has spent most of the past 15 years under house arrest.
"Over the last 25 years you have shown it is possible to combine the pleasure of artistic creation with civic and humanitarian intervention to help build a better world," Sampaio said before giving the band members the honour.
U2 will conclude their world tour in December in the United States.