On the 28:th of August, Swedish Television (SVT) aired a documentary about Luciano Pavarotti and in it there where an interview with Bono where he described how Pavarotti wanted Bono to write a tune for him. Pavarotti called Bono and spoke to the housekeeper; Tell God to give me a call, but Bono couldn't at that time find the time to write the song. Pavarotti called again close to Easter and Bono had to decline once again - he was taking a break off with the children during Easter. Pavarotti's response to this was I know that God will put a song in your heart for me. Bono went on holiday with one of his hands on his back, as he self puts it, since that was - as Bono describes it - the nature of Pavarottis "emotional blackmail". That is what later formed the Miss Sarajevo song.
Jonas Steverud (Maintainer of U2MoL) (28:th of August 2005)
At the October 3rd, 2005 performance in Boston, Bono explained that when they went to Sarajevo to play in the early 1990s during the Zoo TV tour, they met this girl who won the Miss Sarajevo beauty pageant. Bono asked her why they had a pageant while the city was under siege. She responded that she and the other pageant girls would get dressed up and wear saches and then walk out under the mortar fire wearing signs that read "Do you really want to kill us?" Bono wrote the song for this girl and recorded it with Luciano Pavarotti.
Neely Shah neely.shah
gmail.com (4th of October 2005)
"[Miss Sarajevo] was a tune that really spoke so strongly to us when we started listening back to the old material. I always liked it at the time, but it has really stood the test of time. It's one of our best ever songs." -The Edge
From Salvation in the Blues, compiled by Chris Taguchi christaguchi.ca (3rd of April 2007)