U2MoL

Zooropa

Zooropa

  1. The song Zooropa shows not only the beliefs which you are being fed (Zooropa...be all that you can be/ Be a winner/ Eat to get slimmer) as well as the end result of this (and I have no compass/ and I have no map/ And I have no reasons/ No reasons to get back). The song is the centrepoint of the album, and all the other songs point back to it in some way.

    Geoff Guenther guenther@flair.law.ubc.ca (contributed before the 20:th of February 1998)

  2. I speak french. My english is poor but my tailor is rich. The word "Zooropa" is near the word "Europa" or "Europe". On the cover of the eponymous album, the "European Union" stars are drawned all around the little unhappy guy. On the Zoo TV tour show in Sydney, Bono arrives on the stage with the same blue symbol on the background (Zooropa, a bluer kind of white). So I think U2 is trying to encourage the european union with this song. They wrote it in the beginning of the nineties, when the fusion of all Europe countries was one of the great international debate... This first problem that was facing this union was the amazing multitude of cultures and mentalities: How can we create an homogenic, large country with all those differences? U2 replaced the "Eu" of "Europe" by "Zoo" to symbolize that many varieties, species can be ancountered in this continent that wants to unite his children. Bono dreams of an Europe with No paticular place name (no national chauvinism, no regional nationalism under this large union), no particular song (no national hymn, root of particular nationalism...). Bono dreams of an Europe that can finally face the american monster and conquer the world: She's gonna dream of the world; Zooropa, be all that you can be, be a winner; Get out of the mud baby, overground. We can ear the three principal languages of Europe during the song: English, of course (!), German (vorsprung durch technik), French, during the bridge between the smooth part and the louder part (Qu'est-ce que tu veux? Que veux-tu faire? Combien encore?) U2 has always been a group that was worried about the international political business, no wonder why it is a song about an "actual" (actual for 1993) important event!

    Combien encore?
    How many more?
    Qu'est-ce que tu veux?
    What do you want?
    Que veux-tu faire?
    What do you want to do?

    Mathieu Plasse methot.plasse@sympatico.ca ( 1:st of April 1998)

  3. There are a number of advertising slogans in the song:

    Vorsprung Durch Technik
    Audi
    Be all that you can be
    The US Army
    Eat to get slimmer
    Slim-Fast
    Fly the friendly skies
    United Airlines

    Jonas Steverud (Maintainer of U2MoL) (2nd of April 2006)

  4. It's a song about uncertainty. We talked a lot about uncertainty when we were making the record. Musically, uncertainty is the antidote to complacency. As far as the song was concerned, all the ad slogans were the real breakthrough for me. My favorite line is 'We're mild and green.' -The Edge

    Jonas Steverud (Maintainer of U2MoL) (2nd of April 2006)

  5. This is just a little thing I noticed that backs up the point made by Mathieu Plasse about the song Zooropa being about Europe and the European Union. If you look in the album the background behind the lyrics shows many different flags of European countries spinning around and becoming one, almost like paint being mixed. This image definatly seems to back the idea that U2 were trying to encourage the European Union with this song.

    Joel Davies mungo_snikket@hotmail.com ( 6th of September 2006)

  6. If you listen closely to the piano intro you can hear repeated over and over again "We think We think we think we can make it. We try to make it"

    Patrick Allen Zuniga modsavage@aol.com (29th of August 2009)