U2 to livestream performance from Las Vegas Sphere for 2024 Grammys
U2 will give a special performance and present an award at next week’s Grammys, live from the Sphere in Las Vegas.
It will be the first ever official broadcast from the state-of-the-art venue, which has been hosting the ‘U2:UV Achtung Baby’ show since the end of September, and is due to wrap on March 2.
The Grammys are taking place on February 4 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, and will be hosted by Trevor Noah. The nominees were announced in November, with SZA picking up the most nominations with nine. Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Boygenuis, Miley Cyrus, John Batiste, Victoria Monét, and Billie Eilish will all be competing with SZA in the Record Of The Year category.
Alongside U2’s performance on the show, other performers will include Burna Boy, Billy Joel, Dua Lipa, as well as Eilish and Rodrigo.
U2 are said to be working on a new album, and in a November interview, Bono said that the record was “somewhat tied” to the medical status of drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who has been recovering from neck surgery, and pulled out of playing at the band’s Las Vegas Sphere residency.
At the time, bassist Adam Clayton said: “The whole band and I’m sure the audience are going to be very sad and miss Larry. He wants to come back, he wants to be able to have a long career and continue his drumming so he’s taking care of those injuries.”
Bono had previously said that the new album would be “an unreasonable guitar record” with “big choruses”.
Earlier this month, it was reported that developers on a London version of the Sphere had withdrawn their plans, saying the process had become a “political football between rival parties”.
The Madison Square Garden Entertainment Group said it was “extremely disappointing” that Londoners would “not benefit from the Sphere’s groundbreaking technology and the thousands of well-paying jobs it would have created”.
The UK government had previously called for plans for the Vegas-style London Sphere venue to be revived, after they had been scrapped by the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan.
The original plans, first announced in 2018, would have seen a 21,500-capacity venue built, becoming the largest concert arena in the UK.
The proposed venue had raised concerns from some of those living in the surrounding area, who highlighted the strains on local infrastructure and health risks. The London Assembly Environment Committee also warned of the unacceptable light levels that would be created by the venue – with the finished product set to have an estimated 1million LED light bulbs on its exterior.
It was reported in November that Las Vegas’ Sphere had made a loss of $98.4million (£80.5million) since opening on September 29.
The group who manage the MSG Sphere venues have also previously said that they are in “serious talks” about opening a new site in the United Arab Emirates.
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Max Pilley
NME
