U2 and Martin Garrix have officially released their new collaborative single ‘Fireflies’ – you can listen to it below.
The band’s guitarist, The Edge, debuted the track with the Dutch DJ and producer during the latter’s set at Tomorrowland last week.
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“‘Fireflies’ has a very unique mood and it’s a special song we started working on six summers ago. It felt electrifying and very surreal to finally debut it at Tomorrowland with The Edge,” Garrix explained upon sharing the studio version today (Friday July 24).
“I’ve worked with Bono and Edge before, but working with the whole band I got to get a glimpse of their chemistry and why U2 are who they are. They are incredible friends and collaborators, and it has been an absolute honour to work with them again.”
The Edge added: “We go back a long way with Martin, and there’s always a sense of adventure whenever we get together.
“Playing Fireflies for the first time at Tomorrowland, in front of one of the most passionate festival crowds anywhere, was such a rush… in fact I might have enjoyed it a bit too much. It reminded me of why I love playing outdoors. I like it better when there’s no ceiling.”
‘Fireflies’ follows Garrix’s work with Bono and The Edge on ‘We Are The People’, which was released in 2021 as the official song of UEFA Euro 2020.
The atmospheric new collab builds towards a soaring chorus, complete with a dose of The Edge’s signature, anthemic guitar work.
Bono sings: “Cause you and I are firefliеs/ More for the summer skies/ The light that’s in each other’s eyes/ Fireflies/ You and I are fireflies/ Forgetting that the sun will rise/ I met you in the air tonight/ Fireflies.”
Garrix also worked on U2’s ‘Your Song Saved My Life’, which appeared on the soundtrack to the animated film Sing 2. He was also among the writers credited on ‘Scars’ from the band’s surprise ‘Easter Lily’ EP earlier this year.
U2 shared ‘Street Of Dreams’, the first preview of their forthcoming 15th studio album, earlier this month. Produced by Jacknife Lee, the track features drummer Larry Mullen Jr, who missed the group’s Las Vegas Sphere residency in 2023 and 2024 after undergoing surgery.
Bono and co. have already released two EPs of new material this year – the politically focused ‘Days Of Ash’ and the more “personal, private and reflective” ‘Easter Lily’.
The as-yet-untitled new album will mark U2’s first full-length project of newly written material since 2017’s ‘Songs Of Experience’. In 2023, they dropped ‘Songs Of Surrender’ – a collection of re-recorded tracks from their back catalogue.
Speaking about the upcoming LP when ‘Easter Lily’ was released, Bono explained: “We are in the studio, still working towards a noisy, messy, ‘unreasonably colour xerox’ album to play LIVE… which is where U2 lives.
“We still look to vivid rock’n’roll as an act of resistance against all this awfulness on our small screens.”
U2 have been teasing a new album as far back as 2024, when The Edge said it would not be “a straight-up rock thing”. Bono then shared last summer that he was “ready for the future” with U2, with the band having written “25 great songs”. When discussing the writing process earlier last year, the frontman said U2 were overcoming the past to make “the sound of the future”. He reasoned: “Nobody needs a new U2 album unless it’s an extraordinary one. I’m feeling very strong about it.”
