Irish rockers U2 dropped a surprise six-track EP on Wednesday, which kicks off with a song for Renee Good, the Minneapolis woman fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in January.
American Obituary, a four-minute-23-second track condemns the killing of Good — a mother of three — on January 7, which sparked nationwide protests in the US.
Previously, artistes like Bruce Springsteen, Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish condemned the incident.
U2’s extended play was released on Ash Wednesday — a solemn day of repentance, fasting, and prayer in Christianity — to mark the gruesome political landscape of recent times.
Sharing the news on Instagram, the band wrote, “On this Ash Wednesday, Days Of Ash is released as a self-contained collection of five new songs and a selected poem - American Obituary, The Tears Of Things, Song Of The Future, Wildpeace, One Life At A Time and Yours Eternally (ft. Ed Sheeran & Taras Topolia).”
“This new EP is a response to current events,inspired by the many extraordinary and courageous people fighting on the frontlines of freedom. Four of the five tracks are about individuals – a mother, a father, a teenage girl whose lives were brutally cut short - and a soldier who’d rather be singing but is ready to die for the freedom of his country,” they added.
“Renee Good, born to die free. American mother of three. Seventh day, January. A bullet for each child, you see,” U2 frontman Bono’s vocals can be heard in American Obituary. “The color of her eye. 930 Minneapolis. To desecrate domestic bliss. Three bullets blast, three babies kissed. Renee the domestic terrorist?” it carries on.
“America will rise against the people of the lie,” came the chorus.
On January 7, Renee Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and mother of three, was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during a large-scale federal immigration enforcement operation. Launched in December 2025, this operation has deployed approximately 2,000 to 3,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis–St. Paul area and broader Minnesota.
Video of the incident shows the agent firing multiple shots into Good’s SUV as she drove away, striking her at close range. Good’s death, which the Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled a homicide, sparked widespread protests and ignited backlash of ICE tactics amid the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
In a reference to Good’s reported final words captured on video, the lyrics of the song read, “I am not mad at you, Lord.”
“You're the reason I was there. Could you stop a heart from breaking, by having it not care? Could you stop a bullet in midair?” it further says with pangs of heartbreak.
The EP also includes a song adaptation of the poem Wildpeace by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, and other tracks centred on the ongoing conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and Iran.
The final song on the list titled Yours Eternally features vocals by British pop star Ed Sheeran and frontman of the Ukrainian band Antytila, Taras Topolia, a prominent figure in the resistance against the Russian invasion.
Eternally Yours will be followed by a short documentary on Tuesday next week to mark the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, U2 said in a press release to NBC News.
As per NBC News, Bono said that a full-length album with a more “joyful tone” is currently in the works. However, they released these songs now because “these EP tracks couldn't wait”.
