--- description: In case you somehow missed their new album title: U2 Announces November Residency on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5942ce064473d60e/69876450f887dc0eaae87e5b/u2-fallon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # U2 Announces Week-Long Residency on the _Tonight Show_ Later This Month  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 5, 2014 9:16 PM CUT  Larry Mullen, Jr., Adam Clayton, The Edge and Bono of musical guest U2 perform on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on February 17, 2014. Larry Mullen, Jr., Adam Clayton, The Edge and Bono of musical guest U2 perform on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on February 17, 2014.Lloyd Bishop—NBC/Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 5, 2014 9:16 PM CUT U2 would very much like for you to hear their new album. If you weren’t one of the 500 million iTunes subscribers who received an automatic download of _Songs of Innocence_ on Sept. 9, or if you missed their live performance atop 30 Rock on the opening night of _Late Night with Jimmy Fallon_, you can catch them performing on _Fallon_ every night during the week of Nov. 17. In addition to serving as musical guests all five nights, U2 will also appear with Fallon in comedy bits. Luckily for all his guests, Fallon seems to have the gift of funny dust, consistently making his guests appear charming by proxy. (But Bono’s no humorless drone, as he demonstrated with a spot-on [impersonation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wde%5FRC4oHDI "undefined") of pal Bill Clinton at last year’s Clinton Global Initiative.) The late-night residency appears to be something of a trend, with the Foo Fighters promoting a new album during an October residency on _Letterman_, and Metallica playing every night on the _Late Late Show_ _with Craig Ferguson_ the same week that U2 will be on _Fallon_. The residency is probably a nice break for the shows’ booking managers and a music publicist’s dream, but regular viewers who don’t count themselves superfans will likely tire quickly of the repeat performances. And the announcement of U2’s _Fallon_ residency comes on the heels of substantial criticism — even, in some cases, vitriol — directed at the way in which U2 and Apple forced _Songs of Innocence_ on anyone with an iTunes library, whether they wanted it or not. Labeled “[devious](http://www.wired.com/2014/09/apples-devious-u2-album-giveaway-even-worse-spam/ "undefined"),” “[creepy](http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/09/15/apple%5Fu2%5Fsongs%5Fof%5Finnocence%5Fyou%5Fcan%5Feject%5Fbono%5Ffrom%5Fyour%5Fapple%5Fdevices.html "undefined"),” and “[worse than spam](http://www.wired.com/2014/09/apples-devious-u2-album-giveaway-even-worse-spam/ "undefined"),” the move prompted Bono to apologize for what he admitted might look like megalomania, but at its heart was an attempt to reach as many people as possible with the band’s music. So it feels a little soon, in the wake of what many deemed to be a total U2 overload, to receive news of another inescapable week of coverage of the band. (Not to mention that this publicity stunt comes a full two months after the album was released.) As of last month, the album had been downloaded by 26 million people, which is [just shy of double](http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/10/u2-songs-of-innocence-apple-downloaded-26-million-popular-album-itunes "undefined") the number of customers who have purchased music from U2 since the iTunes store launched a decade ago. Given this success, another major push seems, in a word, unnecessary. To be fair, as TIME [reported in September](http://time.com/3393297/u2-apple-new-digital-format/ "undefined"), every negative tweet was matched by one that praised the band, and the members took their moment in the spotlight to discuss a secret initiative they’re working on with Apple: A project that aims to address the problems musicians face in receiving sufficient compensation in an era in which listeners have come to expect to hear music for free. (The band, it should be noted, _did_ receive compensation for _Songs of Innocence_ from Apple, although the music was provided to listeners at no cost.) So they managed to turn a publicity blunder, at least somewhat successfully, into some positive PR. But if you find yourself tiring of the extended spectacle that is U2, come 11:35 pm on Nov. 17, you are free to change the channel. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3558987/u2-tonight-show-residency/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3558987/u2-tonight-show-residency/"},"headline":"U2 Announces Week-Long Residency on the Tonight Show Later This Month","datePublished":"2014-11-05T21:16:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:14:56.608Z","description":"In case you somehow missed their new album","url":"https://time.com/3558987/u2-tonight-show-residency/","keywords":["Television","Music","jimmy fallon","Bono","U2"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5942ce064473d60e/69876450f887dc0eaae87e5b/u2-fallon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5942ce064473d60e/69876450f887dc0eaae87e5b/u2-fallon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Season 1","caption":"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Season 1","creditText":"Lloyd Bishop—NBC/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3558987/u2-tonight-show-residency/","name":"U2 Announces Week-Long Residency on the Tonight Show Later This Month"}}]}] ```