Bono and The Edge among star-studded line-up for opening of Barack Obama Presidential Centre

BONO AND THE Edge are among a star-studded line-up set to perform at the grand opening ceremony of the Obama Presidential Centre in Chicago later this week.

Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, Eddie Vedder, John Legend, Common and the Roots are also among those confirmed for the event, which takes place on Thursday, 18 June, and will be livestreamed globally from 11am local time (5pm Irish time).

The Obama Foundation announced the line-up via Instagram, with the organisation labelling the line-up as “today’s most prominent voices and global icons”. 

The Barack Obama Presidential Centre is a museum, library and education complex in Chicago to commemorate the presidency of Barack Obama.

The campus will also include community and conference facilities, a branch of the Chicago Public Library, and will serve as the headquarters for the Obama Foundation and its programmes.

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The centre will also house the digitised Barack Obama Presidential Library, developed with the National Archives and Records Administration, in what is expected to be the first fully digitised presidential library, alongside preserved physical records stored at a separate federal facility.

Bono and U2 have long been associated with political and humanitarian activism, and have performed for Obama before – the band were part of the line-up for Obama’s ‘Inaugural Celebration’ at the Lincoln Memorial shortly before he was sworn in as president in January 2009.

The band’s recent EP Days of Ash included the song American Obituary, which was about the fatal shooting of US woman Renée Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis. 

Bono also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’s highest civilian honour, from then-president Joe Biden in 2025.

Springsteen’s performance comes after years of him being openly critical of Donald Trump, often using both his live shows and public appearances to speak out against the President and his administration.

The event will be livestreamed on the Obama Presidential Centre’s official website.

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