{"id":928986,"date":"2026-10-11T12:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T12:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/928986\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T12:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T12:12:11","slug":"bonos-daughter-jordan-joy-hewson-on-music-and-growing-up-in-dublin-no-one-was-expecting-a-record-from-me-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/928986\/","title":{"rendered":"Bono\u2019s daughter Jordan Joy Hewson on music and growing up in Dublin: \u2018No one was expecting a record from me\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most of her life, Jordan Joy Hewson has navigated the arts world from a side-angle. Photographed at launches and parties with her famous family \u2013 she\u2019s the eldest child of U2 singer Bono<\/a> and his wife Ali<\/a>, and the sister of actor Eve<\/a> \u2013 Hewson has long been viewed as the business-minded member of the clan, known for her entrepreneurship in the area of social enterprise rather than for her ambitions in the arts. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s changing now. In April, Hewson (37), announced on her Instagram page that she was releasing a single under the moniker Jordan Joy: her full name is Jordan Joy Stillwater Iris Hewson. The song Don\u2019t Kill the Vibe<\/a> \u2013 a winsome slice of indie electronica \u2013 isn\u2019t a one-off. Earlier this week, Hewson dropped her first EP, LED Moon, a five-track alt-pop affair that is as sleekly made and quietly persuasive as the first single. Praise has come from friends Jessica Alba<\/a> and Laura Whitmore<\/a>, with Michael Stipe<\/a> of REM calling Don\u2019t Kill the Vibe the song of the summer. <\/p>\n

Hewson is on a video call from Los Angeles, where she spends a lot of time writing and recording. It\u2019s the week after U2\u2019s 50th birthday bash<\/a> playing on Dublin\u2019s Grafton Street from the balcony of Bewley\u2019s Cafe (she didn\u2019t make it to Dublin, but says \u201cI FaceTimed in, I was really excited to see them playing together\u201d), and she\u2019s also excited, if tentative, about having a big moment in her own life to mark. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo one was expecting a record from me,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve obviously grown up with music around me. But it took going through a rupture in my life and the life I was building to be open to songwriting.\u201d<\/p>\n

This time 10 years ago, Hewson was a tech entrepreneur living in New York. She founded a company, Speakable, in 2016, which had a product, Action Button, designed to promote civic engagement by helping people to get involved in movements or causes. She became a name to watch, making it on to Forbes\u2019 30 Under 30 list for European Social Entrepreneurs in 2019. Then, in 2021, Speakable was acquired in an off-market deal. \u201cMy life did a 180,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

When NationBuilder bought the company, Hewson left New York \u2013 her home for 11 years \u2013 to fly to Dublin, not realising she would have trouble getting back in again because of the pandemic. From living a big city life, she was back in her childhood home in Killiney<\/a> in south county Dublin, with her parents, Eve and her two younger brothers, Elijah, frontman of the indie band Inhaler, and actor brother John. She had also recently gone through a relationship break-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of change,\u201d she says. \u201cMusic helped me get through things I was going through personally. Music came and found me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Music has saved Hewson\u2019s life before. When Ali and Bono were in hospital waiting to have their first baby in May 1989, Bono \u2013 who had brought a portable tape-recorder \u2013 decided to try to record his daughter\u2019s heartbeat when still in the womb. <\/p>\n

He noticed that her heartbeat was starting to slow, so he told the doctor, who recognised he was right. \u201cI understand tempo,\u201d Bono told the Huffington Post podcast<\/a>. Hewson was born in a rush, weighing just five pounds, and spent a lot of the first two weeks on her father\u2019s chest as she was nursed to full health.<\/p>\n

\"JordanJordan Joy: ‘I didn\u2019t think it was possible for me to be an artist. The industry looked intimidating. I think you have to really know who you are to be an artist.’ <\/p>\n

As a little girl, she and her sister Eve spent long days on tour with U2 with their teddy bears squeezed into backpacks, and a tutor on the road; the pair shared a bedroom until they were 12 and are extremely close.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Bono on U2\u2019s first days, 50 years ago: \u2018Edge and Larry could play. Adam and myself were bluffing\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Hewson grimaces resignedly \u2013 the way any sister might \u2013 when I say Eve has called her sibling the A+ student in interviews. <\/p>\n

While Eve was prank-calling Justin Timberlake, having spirited the number from her father\u2019s phone book, Jordan was the one carefully crafting English essays and inhaling reading lists. \u201cYeah, I was nerdy,\u201d she says. \u201cI liked school. I liked reading books and I was good at it. And I really did want to take that seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 19, Hewson went to Columbia University<\/a> in New York to study political science, influenced by her early experiences touring the world. \u201cGrowing up with my parents being activists, I was exposed to really serious issues at a very young age. Even in school, we took a trip as a class to Uganda and visited schools over there. I felt inspired by people I\u2019d met. I wanted to figure out if I could be useful.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was another draw in her life, however. At Columbia, she was allowed to take classes outside her direct degree. \u201cI took an introduction to poetry class with an insanely good poet called Josh Bell. He became a mentor to me. He was like, \u2018What are you doing when you graduate?\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Oh I\u2019m going to go and work in communications.\u2019 He was like, \u2018Why? We have an MFA programme here and I\u2019d be happy to write you a letter of recommendation.\u2019 I was like, \u2018No, it\u2019s cool, I\u2019m going to get a job.\u2019<\/p>\n

A year spent working in the non-profit and communications sector changed her mind.<\/p>\n

\u2018I hope that I can put an album together soon. That would be the goal. I\u2019m happiest making music\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cA year in, I was on the phone to him, being like, \u2018Can I please get a letter of recommendation? I would love to study this.\u2019 Studying under Tim Donnelly and the late Lucie Brock-Broido, she graduated with a master of fine arts in poetry, publishing work in Boston Review and A Public Space.<\/p>\n

It may seem odd to some that Hewson didn\u2019t pick up a pen in those early years to write songs as well as poetry. Did the family business have an inhibiting effect?<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think it was possible for me to be an artist,\u201d she says. \u201cThe industry looked intimidating. I think you have to really know who you are to be an artist. I was too young … And it wasn\u2019t a part of myself I was open to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hewson had played piano from a young age, studying with the well-known composer and musician Dawn Kenny. \u201cShe was very inspiring to me,\u201d she says. \u201cShe taught me a lot by ear and made sure I kept my love of piano going. We still text all the time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hewson also had the virtues that come with a life less ordinary \u2013 at a joint birthday celebration for George Clooney<\/a> at Cafe Habana in Malibu in 2014, Bono and Jordan (father and daughter share a May 10th birthday) sang karaoke, performing the duet Something Stupid. The best-known version had been recorded by Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy.<\/p>\n

In 2023, with an early, musical project called Tenderhooks, she was trying to find both her sound and her nerve: \u201cWith Tenderhooks it was about getting comfortable with the vulnerability of being an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LondonLondon may be Jordan Joy’s home, but she credits growing up in Dublin as being the reason she and her siblings stayed grounded. <\/p>\n

Her siblings all helped around the recording. \u201cEve has a lot of experience with putting herself out there. She\u2019s very focused,\u201d she says. \u201cJohn is very wise and he\u2019ll tell me if something is good or crap. He\u2019s got a great musical sensibility. In the early days, when I was just starting to write songs, Eli [Inhaler\u2019s Elijah] was showing me the ropes. And my cousin Duncan is the person who would help me demo my first songs to send to producers. So there\u2019s a lot of support and interest in the family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gorgeously woozy closing song on the EP came about when Eli accidentally slowed down the title track while attempting to record backing vocals, and Jordan sang over her own pitched-down vocals, with harmonies from her frequent collaborator Jackson Phillips.<\/p>\n

Recently, Hewson went back to New York for a photo-shoot. \u201cI had tears in my eyes,\u201d she says. \u201cI realised I was writing about my life in New York, and processing leaving it. But now I live in London and I love it too. A lot of my Irish friends are in London.\u201d <\/p>\n

The EP is independently released, suggestive of an artist keen to do things her own way. <\/p>\n

Right now, she says, she\u2019s \u201ccreativity dating\u201d, finding new collaborators, and doing writing sessions in LA, Norway and London. \u201cWhen you\u2019re a solo artist you\u2019re constantly meeting collaborators and figuring out whether you work well together. We have live shows coming up as well, so that\u2019s exciting and also,\u201d she laughs, \u201cvery scary. I\u2019ve done open-mics and stuff, but no official shows for this project. The first official project will be in the UK in November.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Bono interview: \u2018I have spent my life looking for the blessing of father figures\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

London may be her home, but she credits growing up in Dublin as being the reason she and her siblings stayed grounded. \u201cIt\u2019s been the best blessing for our family that we stayed there. Irish people respected our privacy and let us be kids and make mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

She admires the new crop of artists coming out of Ireland \u2013 Galway band NewDad<\/a> are on her playlist, she says, and she\u2019s also enjoying LA band Warpaint. She\u2019s currently reading the book I Dream of Joni by Henry Alford, an exploration of the songwriter Joni Mitchell<\/a>\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that I can put an album together soon,\u201d she says. \u201cThat would be the goal.\u201d So there\u2019ll be no turning back to tech? \u201cI\u2019m happiest making music,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is not a side-project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordan Joy\u2019s EP LED Moon is out now <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For most of her life, Jordan Joy Hewson has navigated the arts world from a side-angle. Photographed at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":928987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[319050,39995,49,48,361,8760,75,262452,32351,4704,319052,45922,4419,319051,319053,14138],"class_list":["post-928986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ali-hewson","tag-bono","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-columbia-university","tag-entertainment","tag-eve-hewson","tag-george-clooney","tag-joni-mitchell","tag-killiney","tag-laura-whitmore","tag-magazine","tag-michael-stipe","tag-newdad","tag-u2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/928987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}