U2 - Beautiful Day

What this video is

Released in autumn 2000, 'Beautiful Day' marked U2's commercial and critical resurgence after the divisive experimental Pop era (1997). The video's airport setting — Charles de Gaulle, the same location used for the All That You Can't Leave Behind album photography — functions as a deliberate symbol of transit, global connectivity, and post-ironic humanism. Filmed amid peak millennial optimism, the imagery of jets…

Why it matters

Represents the apex of U2's post-experimental mainstream reentry and the early-2000s alt-rock anthemic revival. The video's stripped-back performance-in-public-space approach influenced subsequent location-based music video aesthetics, trading late-1990s CGI excess for grounded, naturalistic…

The director

Born 10 November 1965 in Bromma, Stockholm, Sweden. Former drummer for Swedish black metal band Bathory (1983–1984). Began directing music videos with Candlemass before becoming the principal video director for Roxette. Rose to global prominence with The…