U2 frontman Bono has performed his first new music since 2017 with a song inspired by Italians quarantined during the coronavirus outbreak.

He posted the new song, Let Your Love Be Known, to his Instagram account with the caption: “For the Italians who inspired it… for the Irish… for ANYONE who this St Patrick’s Day is in a tight spot and still singing. For the doctors, nurses, carers on the front line, it’s you we’re singing to.”

Apparently at home in Dublin, he says he wrote Let Your Love Be Known an hour before posting it, and performs it solo on piano. The lyrics see him walk through a deserted Dublin, and speak of isolation and fear amid the coronavirus outbreak. But inspired by the footage of quarantined Italians singing to each other from their balconies, he sings: “You can’t touch but you can sing across rooftops / sing to me down the phone / sing and promise me you won’t stop / sing and you’re never alone.”

The song was released on St Patrick’s Day as celebrations were cancelled in Ireland and worldwide because of social distancing guidelines.

U2’s most recent album was Songs of Experience, released in December 2017. They performed a world tour, Innocence and Experience, in 2018, and in 2019 took their Joshua Tree anniversary tour to Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Lyrics to Let Your Love Be Known

Yes there was silence
yes there was no people here
yes I walked through the streets of Dublin and no-one was near
Yes I don’t know you
No I didn’t think I didn’t care
You live so very far away from just across the square

And I can’t reach but I can rain
You can’t touch but you can sing
Across rooftops
Sing down the phone
Sing and promise me you won’t stop
Sing your love, be known, let your love be known.

Yes there is isolation
You and me we’re still here
Yes when we open our eyes we will stare down the fear
And maybe I’ve said the wrong thing
Yes I made you smile
I guess the longest distance is always the last mile.

And I can’t reach but I can rain
You can’t touch but you can sing
Across rooftops
Sing to me down the phone
Sing and promise me you won’t stop
Sing and you’re never alone.

Sing as an act of resistance
Sing though your heart is overthrown
When you sing there is no distance
So let your love be known, oh let your love be known
Though your heart is overthrown.
Let your love be known.