Billed “U2 Minus 1 — Live in New York Tonight,” also featured a pregnant Carrie Underwood and Kanye West, who was energetic when he performed hits including “Jesus Walks,” ”Power” and “Stronger.”
Bill Clinton opened the concert Monday, which was World AIDS Day, and said Bono requested he do so.
“I got this email from Bono today recuperating in Dublin, and he said I had to come here tonight to do this intro,” the former U.S. President said. “Twenty six years ago we could have never had an event like this on World AIDS Day because to be diagnosed with AIDS was the death sentence. A few years ago when Secretary of State Clinton said that we could end AIDS, a lot of people didn’t believe it. But this year for the first time ever, more people were put on life saving medicine than were diagnosed with AIDS.”
At one point during the concert, President Barack Obama addressed the crowd from the giant billboard in Times Square, asking everyone to remain committed in the fight against AIDS. “We’re closer than we’ve ever been to achieving the extraordinary — an AIDS free generation,” he said. “We got to keep fighting, all of us.”
