U2

Rock band, two-time Album of the Year winner

Music Ireland Hall No. 67

Profile

Why they shine

U2 has won Album of the Year twice, for The Joshua Tree in 1988 and for the work that grew out of its aftermath, and remains the only band to win the prize twice alongside the band-as-band exceptions. Formed at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin in 1976, the quartet of Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. turned arena rock into a vehicle for political conviction; The Joshua Tree, produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, gave them their first two number-one singles in America and made them the fourth band ever to appear on the cover of Time while still under thirty. Their 2002 Record of the Year for Walk On honoured a song written for Aung San Suu Kyi.

Members: Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr.
Nationality: Ireland
Formed: 1976, Dublin
Album of the Year: The Joshua Tree, 30th Grammy Awards (1988)
Record of the Year: Walk On, 44th Grammy Awards (2002)
Grammy total: 22 awards — most for any band

Record

Honor record

Grammy Award for Album of the Year

1988 · Mar 2, 1988

Radio City Music Hall, New York

The Joshua Tree won Album of the Year at the 30th Grammy Awards, U2's first win in the category and the moment American audiences fully embraced the Dublin band. With Or Bono and Where the Streets Have No Name, it became one of the definitive rock records of the decade.

Grammy Award for Record of the Year

2002 · Feb 27, 2002

Staples Center, Los Angeles

Walk On won Record of the Year at the 44th Grammy Awards, the third of five trophies the band collected for All That You Can't Leave Behind that night. Written for the imprisoned Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the song had become an anthem of endurance after September 2001.

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