Tonight Bono and The Edge appeared with Reeve Carney on the finale of American Idol in support of Spider-Man - Turn off the Dark. This is not the first time that members of U2 have appeared on American Idol in some capacity. Bono made several taped appearances as part of the Idol Gives Back specials, and U2 songs have appeared in the later stages of the competition several times in seasons past; most notably, Lee DeWyze sang Beautiful Day to win the competition last year.

At 8:00 PM EST, right as the show kicked off, a studio version of Rise Above, a song from the musical, featuring Bono, The Edge, and Reeve Carney, was released on iTunes as a digital single in promotion of the upcoming Turn off the Dark soundtrack album. Bono, The Edge, and Reeve Carney came onstage in the last 15 minutes of the program to perform Rise Above, the debut performance of the song by any member of U2.

This was the sole song in the setlist. Our database listing for this appearance can be found here.

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Matkin