U2, Ed Sheeran Collaborate With Ukrainian Band Antytila on New Track “Yours Eternally”

The Irish rock band U2 have released a new track, Yours Eternally, recorded in collaboration with British singer Ed Sheeran and the Ukrainian band Antytila. The song is included in U2’s new EP Days Of Ash, a project in which each track is dedicated to a specific person, according to RBC-Ukraine, citing Antytila’s press service.

The song was born after the musicians met in Kyiv and London. Bono, the U2’s vocalist said he was struck by the resilience of Ukrainians and the spirit of Antytila’s frontman, Taras Topolia.

“…when we first met, despite everything that was happening, despite the daily horrors that Ukrainians, and Taras and his friends, were going through, they didn’t lose heart. They also had that slightly dark sense of humor and that defiant spirit we love in the best of rock and roll—a force of personality that seems to challenge the very times we are living in… And that is the spirit we tried to capture in Yours Eternally,” the Irish rock musician said.

Taras Topolia notet that the key word for the song became “Volya”—the Ukrainian word for freedom.

“One time Bono asked me: what one word can express the Ukrainian character? I answered without hesitation—Volya. Some time passed, and he sent me a demo of Yours Eternally with the words—I feel this is needed by all of us today more than ever,” the musician said.

Topolia said that after Bono noted the track was missing his voice, the band recorded their part in the studio despite blackouts and air raid sirens.

The lyric video serves as an emotional visual continuation of the song’s story, featuring members of Antytila, their fellow servicemen, and Ukrainian civilians, as reported by RBC-Ukraine.

The lyrics of Yours Eternally are structured as a letter from the front line—a soldier’s appeal to friends to live, to dream, and not to lose faith.

According to Ukrainian Telegram channel SLAY MUSIC, a standalone short documentary by Ukrainian director Illia Mikhailiuk is being produced alongside Yours Eternally. The film is set to premiere on February 24, marking four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

It is not the first time Ed Sheeran and Antytila have collaborated. In 2022, Sheeran teamed up with the Ukrainian band on a new version of his song 2Step after Antytila were unable to take part in a benefit concert headlined by the British singer, as reported by People.

Instead, the artists recorded a joint edition of the track, which was released alongside a music video filmed partly in Kyiv and partly in northeastern Ukraine. At the time, Antytila’s frontman, Taras Topolia, was serving as a combat medic, and footage from the front line was incorporated into the video, underscoring the band’s dual role as musicians and servicemen.

Earlier, the song by Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha appeared in the new Apple TV series Pluribus (stylized as Plur1bus). The track was first released in 2020 on the album Alambari, and the band created a shortened version specifically for the show.

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