Editorial
Martin Garrix And U2 Reunite For ‘Fireflies’
Martin Garrix And U2 Reunite For ‘Fireflies’ set to release on July 24 following Tomorrowland premiere and years of collaboration with Bono
Martin Garrix and U2 are set to release their new single Fireflies on July 24, following its premiere during Martin Garrix’s Tomorrowland 2026 set. The track marks their first major release together since We Are The People in 2021, while continuing a creative relationship that has developed through several projects over the past five years. During that time, Bono also played an important role in encouraging Martin Garrix to start singing on his own music, helping him with vocal technique, breathing and lyrics after years of pushing him to use his own voice. That eventually led to Martin Garrix singing on releases including Angels For Each Other and Catharina, making his contribution to Fireflies particularly relevant to the history between them. With Bono and The Edge involved once again, Fireflies brings their long-running creative relationship with Martin Garrix back into focus while adding another major collaboration to a partnership that has continued to develop since We Are The People.
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‘Fireflies’ Debuts At Tomorrowland With The Edge Joining Martin Garrix On Stage
Martin Garrix chose the closing part of his Tomorrowland 2026 set to premiere Fireflies, bringing The Edge on stage as the collaboration was heard in full for the first time. The moment brought together both sides of the partnership: Bono’s vocals carry the song, The Edge’s guitar plays a major role in the track, and Martin Garrix brings those elements into the melodic electronic sound that has long been central to his music. Giving Fireflies the final moments of one of his biggest festival sets also separated it from the unreleased IDs heard earlier in the performance, turning the premiere into a proper introduction to the next chapter of his work with U2.
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The collaboration itself goes further than placing U2 vocals over a Martin Garrix production. Bono’s vocal performance and The Edge’s guitar are central to the track, while Martin Garrix’s production brings those elements into a melodic electronic record that still feels closely tied to his own sound. Premiering Fireflies with The Edge physically on stage also gave the first performance a stronger connection to U2 as a band, not just to Bono as the vocalist heard on the record. It made the Tomorrowland debut feel like a proper joint presentation of the song before its official release, while leaving the longer history between Martin Garrix and U2 to explain why this collaboration carries more weight than a one-off crossover.
Bono’s Influence On Martin Garrix’s Development As A Vocalist
Martin Garrix’s relationship with Bono and The Edge first became a major public collaboration with We Are The People, released in 2021 as the official song for UEFA EURO 2020. That project brought Martin Garrix together with both members of U2, but the relationship continued after the release, particularly through his work with Bono. In the years that followed, Bono became one of the people who repeatedly encouraged Martin Garrix to sing on his own records. Speaking about that decision in 2025, Martin Garrix said Bono had been pushing him to use his own voice for three or four years and had also helped him with singing technique, breathing and lyrics. That support came during a period when Martin Garrix was still best known for producing records around other vocalists, despite having written and worked closely on the songs himself.
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That changed with Angels For Each Other, his 2025 collaboration with Arijit Singh, where Martin Garrix sang on a released track himself. He continued singing on Catharina in 2026, taking on the lead vocal while Bono was also credited as one of the songwriters. By the time Fireflies was completed, Martin Garrix had already begun establishing singing as a genuine part of his own music, making Bono’s earlier encouragement especially relevant to the wider history between them. The person who had spent years pushing Martin Garrix to trust his own voice is now collaborating with him again on a record that continues a creative relationship extending far beyond We Are The People.
With Fireflies, Martin Garrix’s work with Bono and The Edge continues to expand beyond their original collaboration on We Are The People, while his own recent releases show that singing has become a more serious part of his music separately. Whether those two paths cross more directly in the future remains to be seen, but both have become increasingly important parts of where Martin Garrix is heading next.
