U2 singer and frontman Bono dedicated the song “One Tree Hill” to Prince Friso during their concert last night in the Amsterdam Arena. The Irish rock star is close friends with Prince Friso’s widow Princess Mabel, and it was through her that he met Prince Friso. According to the newspaper AD, Princess Mabel was present during last night’s concert, and Bono addressed her directly. The band is performing two shows at the Amsterdam Arena for their The Joshua Tree Tour.
In 2014, Bono spoke to AD and said, “Mabel is an activist like me, I’ve known her for years. We are close friends. I had gotten to know Friso a bit; he was a nice guy.” Bono was one of the 900 guests at the private memorial service held for Friso in the Oude Kerk in Delft in 2013. It wasn’t the first time he dedicated a song to Friso. In 2015, when the band performed in the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam he dedicated the song Every Breaking Wave to him. Reportedly, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima were present.
Bono and Princess Mabel know each other from work with different charities.
Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau was a younger brother of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. He married Mabel Wisse Smit in 2004, and they had two daughters together. He married without an Act of Consent and lost his membership of the Dutch Royal House and his place in the line of succession to the throne. Before his accident, Prince Friso was working as a chief financial officer for URENCO.
On 17 February 2012, he was buried under an avalanche in Lech, Austria, while skiing off piste. He was taken to the hospital in Innsbruck in critical condition, where tests revealed that he suffered massive brain damage due to oxygen shortage. He was initially in a coma but later progressed to a minimally conscious state. On 12 August 2013, Prince Friso died of complications.
