Bono Trivia
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60 free Bono trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Bono trivia quiz covers the U2 singer from every angle. The early questions ask about Paul Hewson's Dublin childhood, the Cedarwood Road street gang that handed out nicknames, the hearing-aid shop that gave the world 'Bono Vox', and the school noticeboard advert that brought U2 together in 1976. From there it moves through the band years: Live Aid, the Zoo TV alter egos, the Golden Globe expletive that reached Congress, and the songs he and the Edge wrote for other people. A second strand follows Bono the activist and businessman: the Ethiopian famine trip, Jubilee 2000, DATA, the ONE Campaign and (RED), the honorary knighthood, the Time Person of the Year cover, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the tax criticism that came with all of it. There are also questions on his family, his sunglasses, his memoir, his bicycle crash and the heart surgery he kept quiet for years. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. If you want the whole band, our U2 trivia quiz is the natural next stop.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is Bono's real first name?
Paul
He was born Paul David Hewson in Dublin's Rotunda Hospital in May 1960.
Q 02In which Irish city was Bono born and raised?
Dublin
He grew up on Cedarwood Road on Dublin's Northside, between Finglas and Ballymun.
Q 03Bono's nickname 'Bono Vox' was adapted from the name of what kind of business just off O'Connell Street?
A hearing aid shop
Bonavox loosely translates as 'good voice' in Latin, which is why he came round to a name he initially disliked.
Q 04Which childhood friend gave Bono his nickname?
Guggi
Guggi (Derek Rowen) was part of the surrealist street gang Lypton Village, which had a ritual of handing out names.
Q 05What was the name of the surrealist street gang Bono belonged to as a teenager?
Lypton Village
Gang members included Guggi and the future musician Gavin Friday, both of whom lived on the same street.
Q 06Which school did Bono attend when U2 formed?
Mount Temple Comprehensive
Mount Temple was a multi-denominational school in Clontarf; he had spent a year at St Patrick's Cathedral Grammar School before moving there.
Q 07Who posted the 1976 school notice board advert seeking people to form a band, which Bono answered?
Larry Mullen Jr.
Bono, David and Dik Evans and Adam Clayton all responded to the drummer's advert on 25 September 1976.
Q 08What was the first name the band that became U2 went by?
Feedback
They kept that name for a few months, became The Hype, and settled on U2 after Dik Evans left.
Q 09How old was Bono when his mother Iris died?
14
She died in September 1974, three days after a ruptured aneurysm at her own father's funeral; songs such as 'I Will Follow' and 'Tomorrow' deal with the loss.
Q 10Bono's first job, at 15, was with which Irish supermarket chain?
Superquinn
He later worked for the father of his friend Derek Rowen, better known as the artist Guggi.
Q 11During U2's Live Aid set in 1985, Bono famously left the stage to dance with a fan during which song?
Bad
The 12-minute detour ate their allotted time and forced them to drop 'Pride', then their biggest hit, from the setlist.
Q 12How many Grammy Awards has Bono won as a member of U2?
22
The band was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, its first year of eligibility.
Q 13Which of Bono's Zoo TV Tour stage personas wore a gold lamé suit and devil's horns?
MacPhisto
MacPhisto was named after Mephistopheles from the Faust legend and made prank calls to local politicians from the stage.
Q 21In the 2007 film Across the Universe, Bono appeared as 'Dr. Robert' singing which Beatles song?
I Am the Walrus
The cameo came during a psychedelic sequence in Julie Taymor's Beatles jukebox musical.
Q 22Bono voiced Clay Calloway, a reclusive lion rock legend, in which animated film?
Sing 2
It was his first major voice role, released in 2021.
Q 23What is the title of Bono's 2022 memoir?
Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story
It debuted at number two on The New York Times nonfiction list, and his audiobook narration won Audiobook of the Year at the 2024 Audies.
Q 14Bono's leather-clad 'The Fly' persona began with an oversized pair of sunglasses given to him by whom?
The wardrobe manager
Fintan Fitzgerald handed him the blaxploitation-style shades to lighten the mood in the studio, and Bono built a whole egomaniac character around them.
Q 15Bono's Mirror Ball Man character was meant to parody which group of people?
American televangelists
Dressed in silver lamé and a cowboy hat, he made prank calls from the stage, often trying to reach President George H. W. Bush at the White House.
Q 16In which city did Bono spray-paint 'Rock N Roll Stops the Traffic' on a fountain in 1987?
San Francisco
Mayor Dianne Feinstein criticised him and promoter Bill Graham paid to clean the Vaillancourt Fountain; the footage made it into Rattle and Hum.
Q 17Bono's on-air swearing while accepting a 2003 Golden Globe led to a proposed US bill with what name?
Clean Airwaves Act
The FCC declined to fine NBC, so congressmen introduced House Resolution 3687 to list banned words explicitly; it never passed.
Q 18Bono and the Edge wrote the theme song for which James Bond film, performed by Tina Turner?
GoldenEye
The pair had already scored the Royal Shakespeare Company's stage version of A Clockwork Orange in 1990.
Q 19Bono and the Edge composed the music and lyrics for which Broadway musical?
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
They appeared on the soundtrack single 'Rise Above 1' with the show's star Reeve Carney in 2011.
Q 20Bono and the Edge featured on 'We Are the People', the official song of which tournament?
UEFA Euro 2020
The track was made with Dutch DJ Martin Garrix and released in May 2021, the tournament having been delayed a year by the pandemic.
Q 24The 2025 documentary Bono: Stories of Surrender was released on which streaming service?
Apple TV+
It was also released as an Apple Immersive Video for the Vision Pro headset, the first feature-length film in that format.
Q 25Bono says he was first inspired to activism by seeing a benefit show for which organisation in 1979?
Amnesty International
The Secret Policeman's Ball shows were staged by Monty Python's John Cleese and producer Martin Lewis; Bono said it 'sowed a seed'.
Q 26After Live Aid, Bono and his wife spent a month working at a feeding centre in which country?
Ethiopia
They wrote songs and one-act plays to teach children about health and hygiene in Ajibar; the trip shaped his later Africa campaigning.
Q 27What does the acronym of DATA, the advocacy group Bono co-founded in 2002, stand for?
Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa
Co-founded with Bobby Shriver and funded by the Gates Foundation, George Soros and Edward W. Scott, it merged into ONE in 2007.
Q 28With whom did Bono co-found the ONE Campaign in 2004?
Bobby Shriver
The pair teamed up again in 2006 to create (RED), which licenses its brand to companies to raise money for the Global Fund.
Q 29Money raised by Product Red goes to which organisation?
The Global Fund
Partners have included Apple, American Express, Nike and Starbucks; by December 2020 (RED) had generated $650 million.
Q 30Which US president credited Bono's lobbying with getting PEPFAR through Congress?
George W. Bush
Bono lobbied Bush at the White House in March 2002; PEPFAR has been credited with saving 17 million lives.