At last, a connection has been made that’s been in the works for 30 years. Bono and his group U2 are going to get the Sonny Bono Visionary Award at the Palm Springs Film Festival next week. You can only imagine the “Bono-Bono” jokes being readied by the comic they’ve hired to emcee the show. Bono, of course, pronounces his name BONNO. Sonny was BONE-O. But still, how many times have you started to say one of their names aloud the wrong way? Even Cher may have had that problem.
“We normally present the Sonny Bono Visionary Award to a director, but for our 25th anniversary we wanted to take the occasion to celebrate U2, a visionary group and the world’s premier rock band, for their unparalleled humanitarian work against extreme poverty, disease, and social injustice,” said Festival Chairman Harold Matzner. “Their latest song ‘Ordinary Love’ from the film Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom is an ode to Nelson Mandela, who had such a powerful impact on our world, and a man whom the band worked with in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. The Palm Springs International Film Festival is honored to present the 2014 Sonny Bono Visionary Award to U2.”
You know that loquacious Bono will talk admiringly about Sonny’s Phil Spector years and records like “I Got You Babe.” U2 may wind up covering “A Cowboy’s Work is Never Done.”
