Last night at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, a historic moment unfolded as Bono and The Edge accepted the **2025 Woody Guthrie Prize** on behalf of **U2**, recognizing their lifelong commitment to using music as a tool for truth, justice, and human dignity. Presented by **Woody Guthrie’s granddaughter Anna Canoni** and **Woody Guthrie Center Director Cady Shaw**, the award celebrated the band’s enduring belief that popular music can be a moral compass and a force for change.
The evening blended reflection, performance, and activism. After a moving **six-song acoustic set**, Bono and The Edge sat down with **T Bone Burnett** for an intimate discussion on the power of art to confront injustice. “You can’t write a song to order,” Bono reflected, “but sometimes a song writes you.” He then shared new lyrics from a piece still in progress, inspired by the **July 2025 murder of Awdah Hathaleen**, a Palestinian activist and consultant on the Oscar-winning documentary *No Other Land*.
Bono revealed that the phrase “**One Life at a Time**,” spoken by the film’s co-director **Basel Adra** in mourning his friend, haunted him so deeply that he called The Edge immediately. “The phrase can work both ways,” Bono said. “You can break or make the world—one life at a time.” The Edge’s haunting melody soon gave shape to their shared grief and hope.
Bono then recited a portion of the new lyrics, piercingly direct and human:
*One father shot / Three children crying / If there is no law / Is there no crime?*
*If there is no hope / What’s there to rhyme?*
*History is written / One life at a time.*
The room stood silent, the spirit of Woody Guthrie alive once more—in protest, in poetry, and in song.
