"Miss Sarajevo" is a song by Irish rock band U2 and British musician Brian Eno, credited to the pseudonym "Passengers". It was released on 20 November 1995 as the only single from their album Original Soundtracks 1. Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti makes a vocal appearance, singing the opera solo. The song was written about a group of women who held a beauty pageant during the Siege of Sarajevo as an act of defiance.
"Miss Sarajevo" appears on U2's compilation The Best of 1990–2000 and was covered by George Michael on his album Songs from the Last Century. While the song did not enter the US Billboard Hot 100, it reached number six on the UK Singles Chart and was a top-10 hit in many other European countries. U2 vocalist Bono cites "Miss Sarajevo" as his favourite U2 song.
Background
U2 first became involved with Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, which stemmed from the genocide by Bosnian Serbs against Bosnian Muslims. Once Bosnia and Herzegovina had declared their independence from Yugoslavia, the Serbs from Sarajevo suburbs surrounded the capital, Sarajevo, as they planned to include a territory of the country as part of their new Serbian state of Republika Srpska. It was the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare, lasting from April 1992 until February 1996. The population of Sarajevo was reduced to poverty, no longer having access to public transit, water, gas and electricity, depending greatly on relief agencies. By October 1992, no-fly zones were established by the United Nations, making it difficult for any media cover or relief plans to be sent into the country.
American journalist Bill Carter travelled to Sarajevo in the winter of 1993 to offer humanitarian aid and quickly found himself in the heart of the conflict. He lived for six months in a burnt-out office building, subsisting on baby food and whatever water he could find in the rivers and sewers and delivering food and medicine to those in need. Carter originally contacted U2 while they were on their Zoo TV Tour to show audiences the real people involved, feeling that the western media were ignoring the human aspect of the war. The band arranged for several satellite link-ups where Carter gave the locals—who had been cut off from communication with the rest of Europe for about a year and a half at this point—an opportunity to be heard before stadiums of thousands. The link-ups were brief and unedited.
Carter suggested to lead vocalist Bono an idea to film a documentary based on Sarajevo's underground resistance movement. Not only did Bono produce the film, he also provided the funds needed to support the project. Carter had his camera sent to him from his home in California so he could film the documentary with the same goal of exposing people to the individuals living through the war. "The war is just a backdrop, it could be any war, the point is the vitality of the human spirit to survive, [to] laugh, to love, and to move on, that is something we will be addressing always."