what was u2's lead single from 'the joshua tree'

"With or Without You" was released as the lead single on 21 March 1987, with the B-sides "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)" and "Walk to the Water".[115] The single quickly topped the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's first number-one hit in America.[16] The song topped the singles chart in Canada,[116] while reaching number four in the UK[95] and number two in the Netherlands.[111] The group originally planned to use "Red Hill Mining Town" as the second single.[117] However, the group were unhappy with the music video filmed by Neil Jordan,[16][118] and Bono had difficulty singing the song.[119] Ultimately, the group canceled the single.[117][120] Instead, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was chosen as the second single, and it was released in May 1987 with the tracks "Spanish Eyes" and "Deep in the Heart" as B-sides.[121] Like its predecessor, it topped the Hot 100, giving U2 consecutive number-one singles in the US.[16] The single peaked at number six in the UK,[95] Canada,[116] and the Netherlands.[111] By May, sales of the album surpassed 7 million copies worldwide.[122]

The Joshua Tree

The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 9Â March 1987 on Island Records. In contrast to the ambient experimentation of their 1984 release, The Unforgettable Fire, the band aimed for a harder-hitting sound within the limitation of conventional song structures on The Joshua Tree. The album is influenced by American and Irish roots music, and through sociopolitically conscious lyrics embellished with spiritual imagery, it contrasts the group's antipathy for the "real America" with their fascination with the "mythical America".

Inspired by American tour experiences, literature, and politics, U2 chose America as a theme for the record. Recording began in January 1986 in Ireland, and to foster a relaxed, creative atmosphere, the group primarily recorded in two houses. Several events during the sessions helped shape the conscious tone of the album, including the band's participation in the Conspiracy of Hope benefit concerts for Amnesty International, the death of roadie Greg Carroll, and lead vocalist Bono's travels to Central America. Recording was completed in November 1986; additional production continued into January 1987. Throughout the sessions, U2 sought a "cinematic" quality for the record, one that would evoke a sense of location, in particular, the open spaces of the United States. They represented this in the sleeve photography depicting them in American desert landscapes.

The Joshua Tree received critical acclaim, topped the charts in over 20 countries, and became the fastest-selling album in British history. According to Rolling Stone, the album increased the band's stature "from heroes to superstars". It produced the hit singles "With or Without You", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and "Where the Streets Have No Name", the first two of which became the group's only number-one singles in the US. The album won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1988. The group supported the record with the Joshua Tree Tour throughout 1987.

Frequently listed among the greatest albums of all time, The Joshua Tree is one of the world's best-selling albums, with over 25Â million copies sold. U2 commemorated the record's 20th anniversary with a remastered re-release, and its 30th anniversary with a concert tour and reissue. In 2014, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the US Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

Before The Joshua Tree, U2 had released four studio albums and were an internationally successful band, particularly as a live act having toured every year in the 1980s.[1] The group's stature and the public's anticipation for a new album grew following their 1984 record The Unforgettable Fire, their subsequent tour, and their participation in Live Aid in 1985. U2 began writing new material in mid-1985 following the Unforgettable Fire Tour.[1][2]

U2's manager Paul McGuinness recounted that The Joshua Tree originated from the band's "great romance" with the United States, as the group had toured the country for up to five months per year in the first half of the 1980s.[1] Leading up to the album sessions, lead vocalist Bono had been reading the works of American writers such as Norman Mailer, Flannery O'Connor, and Raymond Carver so as to understand, in the words of Hot Press editor Niall Stokes, "those on the fringes of the promised land, cut off from the American dream".[3] Following a Septemberâ€“October 1985 humanitarian visit to Egypt and Ethiopia with his wife Ali,[4] Bono said, "Spending time in Africa and seeing people in the pits of poverty, I still saw a very strong spirit in the people, a richness of spirit I didn't see when I came home... I saw the spoiled child of the Western world. I started thinking, 'They may have a physical desert, but we've got other kinds of deserts.' And that's what attracted me to the desert as a symbol of some sort."[5]

After recording vocals for Steven Van Zandt's anti-apartheid project Sun City in August 1985, Bono made an additional contribution to the album in October that was inspired by his burgeoning interest in roots music.[4] While in New York, he spent time with musicians Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, who played him blues and country music. Bono was embarrassed by his lack of familiarity with the genres, as most of U2's musical knowledge began with punk rock in their youth in the mid-1970s. He realised that U2 "had no tradition" and felt as if they "were from outer space".[6] This inspired him to write the blues-influenced song "Silver and Gold", which he recorded with Richards and Ronnie Wood and convinced Van Zandt to add to Sun City.[4] Until that time, U2 had been apathetic towards roots music, but after spending time with the Waterboys and fellow Irish band Hothouse Flowers, they felt a sense of indigenous Irish music blending with American folk music.[2] Nascent friendships with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Richards encouraged Bono to look back to rock's roots and to focus on his skills as a songwriter and lyricist.[7][8] He explained, "I used to think that writing words was old-fashioned, so I sketched. I wrote words on the microphone. For The Joshua Tree, I felt the time had come to write words that meant something, out of my experience."[9] Dylan told Bono of his own debt to Irish music,[10] while Bono further demonstrated his interest in music traditions in his duet with Irish Celtic and folk group Clannad on the track "In a Lifetime".[10]

â€”The Edge, on the band's approach to The Joshua Tree[11]

The band wanted to build on the textures of The Unforgettable Fire, but in contrast to that record's often out-of-focus experimentation, they sought a harder-hitting sound within the limitations of conventional song structures.[12] The group referred to this approach as working within the "primary colours" of rock musicâ€”guitar, bass, and drums.[13] Guitarist the Edge was more interested in the European atmospherics of The Unforgettable Fire and was initially reluctant to follow Bono's lead to seek a more American sound.[14] The Edge was eventually convinced after discovering blues and country artists such as Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, and Lefty Frizzell on American public radio stations during the Unforgettable Fire Tour.[2] Despite lacking a consensus on musical direction, the group members agreed that they felt disconnected from the dominant synthpop and new wave music of the time, and they wanted to continue making music that contrasted with these genres.[1]

In November 1985,[15] U2 moved into drummer Larry Mullen Jr.'s newly purchased home to work on material written during the Unforgettable Fire Tour. This included demos that would evolve into "With or Without You", "Red Hill Mining Town", "Trip Through Your Wires", and a song called "Womanfish". The Edge recalled it as a difficult period with a sense of "going nowhere", although Bono was set on America as a theme for the album. Supplementary recording sessions at STS Studios in Dublin with producer Paul Barrett saw the development of "With or Without You" and the genesis of "Bullet the Blue Sky".[2]

Based on their success with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois on The Unforgettable Fire, U2 wanted the duo to produce their new album.[16] Mullen was excited about working with them again, as he felt the pair, Lanois in particular, were the band's first producers who "really [took] an interest in the rhythm section".[1] Mark "Flood" Ellis was selected to be the recording engineer for the sessions, marking the first time he worked with U2.[14] The band were impressed by his work with Nick Cave, and Bono's friend Gavin Friday recommended Flood based on their work experiences together when Friday was a member of the Virgin Prunes.[16] The band asked Flood for a sound that was "very open... ambient... with a real sense of space of the environment you were in", which he thought was a very unusual request at that time.[1]

Intending to release an album in late 1986, U2 set up a studio in January of that year in Danesmoate House, a Georgian house in Rathfarnham, Ireland, in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains.[14][17] The Edge had viewed the residence months prior while househunting with his wife, and convinced the owner to rent it to the band.[17] Their plan was to find inspiration from the converted recording space and use it to musically create atmosphere, much like they did with Slane Castle for The Unforgettable Fire sessions in 1984.[14]

A makeshift control room with tape machines, a mixing console, and other outboard equipment was set up in Danesmoate's dining room, with the adjacent drawing room used for recording and performing.[14] The large doors separating the rooms were replaced with a glass screen, and to maintain a relaxed "non-studio" atmosphere for the sessions, the control room was dubbed the "lyric room" and the recording space was called the "band room".[16] Lanois' strategy was to encourage the band members to have their parts worked out in advance and to capture as much of the essence of a live band take as possible, without having the possibility of subsequent overdubbing to fall back on.[18][19] This was a change for U2, who previously recorded each instrument separately and then layered them into the mix.[13] To support his approach of having all the band members recording in a room together, Lanois eschewed having them wear headphones in favour of using monitor speakers due to their power; Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton used two each. To aid in sound isolation, gobos were built in the drawing room, although the production staff still faced issues with audio spill from the monitor speakers. Lanois said that due to the setup, "you have to make a commitment to what you put down and either use it or throw it all away." This recording setup was duplicated at subsequent locations during the album sessions.[18]

U2's initial time at Danesmoate was spent recording and refining "extensive demos" that the Edge anticipated could turn into final backing tracks.[20] They began with their usual songwriting methods of sorting through tapes from soundcheck jams, working through Bono's lyric book, and recording jam sessions.[16] The sessions saw the group's songwriting beginning to evolve; not all material was being worked out as a band, rather Bono and the Edge often brought basic song ideas to Mullen and Clayton.[21] The group were first joined at Danesmoate by Eno, with Flood and fellow engineer Dave Meegan recording their jams. Meegan said of Eno's involvement: "Usually he was in first every morning and he'd start some dodgy sequence on his DX-7 [synthesiser]—it would be just like a cello line with no intentions of ever staying forever, just something to inspire people when they walked into the room."[22] One of the first songs worked on was "Heartland", which originated during The Unforgettable Fire sessions and was later released on the band's 1988 album, Rattle and Hum.[14] The arrangements for "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" were completed early in the Danesmoate sessions, giving the band the confidence to experiment.[16] Eno and Lanois intentionally worked with the band at alternate times—one producer for a week or two, followed by the other. The producers encouraged an interest in older songs, especially American roots music. More contemporary references included the textural guitar work of the Smiths and My Bloody Valentine. The band's musical vocabulary had improved after their previous album, facilitating communication and collaboration with the production team.[16]

The band found Danesmoate to have a very creative atmosphere, but according to the Edge, they "just couldn't settle in". The large drawing room, with a tall ceiling and wooden floors, created an "ear-splitting" drum sound that caused issues for the group.[23] Lanois had a higher opinion of the house, saying: "It was loud, but it was really good loud, real dense, very musical. In my opinion it was the most rock and roll room of the lot." According to him, "the Danesmoate sessions were the backbone of the tonality of the recordâ€”we got a lot of the drums done in there." He thought that the house sounded better than Slane Castle, and he was particularly impressed with the drawing room's "low mid-range... where the music lives", a property that he believes was a major factor in the success of The Joshua Tree.[16]

Over the course of recording The Joshua Tree, the band twice paused to participate in benefit concerts. On 17 May 1986, U2 performed at Self Aid in Dublin.[24] Intended to help alleviate Ireland's unemployment crisis by raising funds and job pledges, the event was harshly criticised in the media for taking pressure off the Irish government to resist Margaret Thatcher's economic policies. The band in particular were labelled hypocrites for their participation.[25] Their appearance included a cover of Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm", reinterpreted as a criticism of Thatcher.[24] Hot Press' Niall Stokes called their performance "the blackest and most ferocious set of their entire career".[25] In June 1986, U2 embarked on the six-show Conspiracy of Hope tour for Amnesty International,[24] halting the album's recording sessions for about two months.[26] Rather than distract the band, the tour invigourated their new music and provided extra focus on what they wanted to say.[27] For Clayton, the tour validated the "rawness of content" and their attempts to capture the "bleakness and greed of America under Ronald Reagan".[27] The band used soundchecks on the tour to test out various guitar compositions they had.[28] Meegan believed that U2's time with the other artists on the tour affected their own sound: "Their musical heroes were bleeding into the music and they weren't embarrassed by it, which gave them a lot of space to work in."[25]

On 3 July, the band experienced a tragedy when Greg Carroll, their roadie and Bono's personal assistant, was killed in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. The 26-year-old's death overwhelmed the U2 organisation, and the band travelled to his native New Zealand to attend his traditional Māori funeral; the experience inspired the lyrics to "One Tree Hill".[29] After the funeral,[30] Bono and his wife visited Nicaragua and El Salvador, where they saw firsthand the distress of peasants affected by political conflicts and US military intervention, experiences which formed the basis of the lyrics for "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Mothers of the Disappeared".[31]

On 1Â August 1986, U2 regrouped in Dublin to resume work on the album and begin the recording stage proper.[14][20] During this more intense phase of the sessions, the group began to work at the Edge's newly purchased house, Melbeach, in seaside Monkstown.[32] Lanois said of Melbeach, "That was less of a rock 'n' roll room but we made it work. I think there were a lot of headaches, isolating people and having to build baffles around the place."[16] The Edge called the house "more sombre" but said it had a "solid unpretentious quality that seemed to hold the energy in".[33] "Mothers of the Disappeared" and "Bullet the Blue Sky" were among the songs that evolved at Melbeach. Lanois said that most of the record was done there,[16] and that it was the preferred location for mixing.[34] Writing and recording alternated between the two houses and Windmill Lane Studios.[14] In late August during Hurricane Charley, U2 were visited at Danesmoate by Robbie Robertson, the former guitarist of the Band. Robertson was in Ireland to complete his self-titled debut solo album that he had begun with Lanois. Together, U2 and Robertson recorded the tracks "Sweet Fire of Love" and "Testimony", both of which appear on Robertson's album.[16][35][17]

As the sessions progressed, U2 attempted to record a suitable take of the song "Where the Streets Have No Name", which began as a demo that the Edge had composed individually. However, the group struggled with the chord and time signature shifts,[32] forcing significant "screwdriver work" to fix a recorded version of the song.[1] Eno estimated approximately 40% of the time spent on The Joshua Tree was dedicated to that song alone.[36] During takes, Lanois used a pointer and a chalkboard to help walk the band through the song's changes.[16] In an attempt to force the group to start anew, Eno intended to "stage an accident" whereby the song's tapes would be erased. According to Flood, engineer Pat McCarthy had to restrain Eno to prevent this from happening. Ultimately, the erasure never occurred.[1] Another aspect of the album that required re-work was Bono's lyrics. The vocalist had another set of lyrics for most of the record, but the other group members were dissatisfied with them, forcing rewrites.[37] Lanois said the production team extensively screened Bono's lyrics and offered suggestions, as many lines did not sound as good when sang against a backing track as they did when written down.[18] Bono's revised lyrics were described as "absolutely stunning" by Meegan, who believed that the insecurity the singer felt from having his work critiqued further motivated him.[37]

After a creative spurt in October resulted in new song ideas,[35] Bono proposed that the group release a double album.[38] The Edge said: "There would have been two records, depending on which songs we decided to finish. There was this one album, the 'blues' album that Bono was talking about, and another, much more 'European', which is kind of the way I was led."[26] Eno cautioned the group about pursuing the material, telling the Edge: "I know that any one of these new ideas is good enough to make the record, but we have to draw the line somewhere. If we even consider any of them we'll still be here in three months time."[33] U2 relented, shelving the new songs to avoid missing their deadline to complete the album.[35] Recording for The Joshua Tree wrapped up in November 1986. Rough mixes had been created throughout the sessions after each song was recorded to, in Lanois' words, take "snapshots along the way... because sometimes you go too far".[16] The Edge explained that the arrangement and production of each song was approached individually and that while there was a strong uniform direction, they were prepared to "sacrifice some continuity to get the rewards of following each song to a conclusion".[39]

The final weeks were a frantic rush to finish, with the band and production crew all suffering from exhaustion. Eno and Flood had minimal involvement with the final mixes,[16] as they had other commitments. Facing understaffing,[18] in late December, U2 hired Steve Lillywhite, producer of their first three albums, to remix the potential singles and make them more appealing to commercial radio.[32][40] His eleventh-hour presence and changes caused discontent among the production crew, including Eno and Lanois.[32] Of the approximately 30 songs that were created during the album's sessions, 11 were selected for the final track listing.[41] Lillywhite mixed four songs with engineer Mark Wallis on an SSL desk at Windmill Lane Studios.[16][35][18] At the same time, Lanois, McCarthy, and Meegan mixed seven songs at Melbeach on a 24-track AMEK 2500 mixing desk; all three were required to operate the console due to the lack of mix automation.[16][18]

On the night before the 15 January 1987 deadline set by Island Records to complete the record, the band and the crew completed mixing.[18][42] As they worked at Melbeach,[42] Lillywhite's wife, singer Kirsty MacColl, volunteered to set the running order for the album. The band told her to put "Where the Streets Have No Name" first and "Mothers of the Disappeared" last, with the rest sequenced according to her preference.[32] Bono said of MacColl's contribution, "Your hope for your album is that it will always be greater than the sum of its parts. It wasn't happening for The Joshua Tree and she came in and she organized it and it worked as an old-fashioned album: a beginning, middle and end."[43] Around 2 AM, just seven hours before the album was due to Island for mastering, the Edge tried to convince Lillywhite to allow him to add backing vocals to "Where the Streets Have No Name", but he was denied. In the morning, Meegan and Lillywhite flew with the album's tapes to Island's offices in Hammersmith, London.[42]

Following the completion of the album proper, U2 returned to the studio with Meegan and McCarthy to complete the new material they had shelved in October.[33][44] These tracks, which included "Walk to the Water", "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)", and "Spanish Eyes", were completed as B-sides for the planned singles.[44] The Edge said that with no producers around and "without the sense of significance that imbued the album sessions", the group worked quickly and productively, preventing the songs from, in his opinion, sounding overworked.[33] The song "Sweetest Thing" was left off the album and released as a B-side, as the band felt it was incomplete and did not fit with the other songs.[45] They later expressed regret that it had not been completed for The Joshua Tree. The track was re-recorded as a single for the group's 1998 compilation The Best of 1980–1990.[46] U2 agreed that one track, "Birdland", was too strong for a B-side and they withheld it for a future album release.[44] In 2007, a re-recorded version of the song, retitled "Wave of Sorrow (Birdland)", was included with the 20th anniversary edition of the album.[47]

After completing The Joshua Tree, Bono said that he was "as pleased with the record as I can ever be pleased with a record", calling The Joshua Tree their most complete album since their debut.[8] Clayton bought Danesmoate House in 1987 and made it his home.[48]

U2 is credited with composing all of The Joshua Tree's music.[51] The album's sound draws from American and Irish roots music more than the group's previous albums, following the counsel and influence of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Keith Richards. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" has strong gospel influences, with Bono singing of spiritual doubt in an upper register and Eno, Lanois, and the Edge providing choir-like backing vocals.[50] The slow piano-based ballad "Running to Stand Still" exhibits traits of folk music and acoustic blues in the track's slide acoustic guitar and harmonica.[50] "Trip Through Your Wires", another song on which Bono plays harmonica, was described by Niall Stokes as a "bluesy romp".[52]

The Edge's guitar playing on The Joshua Tree is characteristic of what came to be his trademark sound. His minimalist style sharply contrasted with the emphasis placed on virtuosity and speed by heavy metal in the 1980s. The Edge views musical notes as "expensive", preferring to play as few of them as possible and to instead focus on simpler parts that serve the moods of the songs.[49] Much of this was achieved with a delay effect, contributing to a chiming, echo-laden sound.[53] For example, the riff in the introduction of the opening track "Where the Streets Have No Name" is a repeated six-note arpeggio, with delay used to repeat notes.[49] The riffs to "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "With or Without You" also prominently use delay, with Bono likening the guitar hook from the former track to "chrome bells".[50] Writer Derek White conducted a mathematical study of the Edge's rhythmic delay in an attempt to explain why his playing style on the record appealed to him so much. For a given song, White found that by dividing the number of repeated delay notes per minute by the song's tempo in beats per minute, he arrived at e, an important mathematical constant that is used to explain many natural phenomena.[54]

The Edge continued to employ the ambient techniques of guitar playing that he used on The Unforgettable Fire; for "With or Without You", he used a prototype of the Infinite Guitar to add layers of sustained notes, an approach he first took on his 1986 solo album, the Captive soundtrack.[55] On other songs, his guitar playing is more aggressive; "Exit" was described by Colin Hogg as a "decidedly scary... guitar-driven barrage",[56] while Andrew Mueller said the guitar sounds from "Bullet the Blue Sky" evoke images of fighter planes.[57] The Edge developed the harsh, feedback-charged guitar part for the latter song at Bono's instruction to "put El Salvador through an amplifier", after Bono returned angry from a visit to the war-torn country.[58] Bono also contributed to songwriting on guitar; the Spanish guitar melody in "Mothers of the Disappeared" originated from a song that he wrote in Ethiopia to teach children about basic hygiene.[32]

Much like on past records, Bono exhibits an expressive, open-throated vocal delivery,[59] which many critics described as "passionate".[56][60][61] Spin found that the group's exploration of roots music resulted in Bono's style expanding, saying that he "commands the full whisper-to-shout range of blues mannerisms".[62] Bono attributes this maturation to "loosening up", "discover[ing] other voices", and employing more restraint in his singing.[9] His vocals became, in the words of Thom Duffy, more "dynamic" than they had been on previous records.[63] On "Where the Streets Have No Name", his voice varies greatly in its timbre (as writer Mark Butler describes, "he sighs; he moans; he grunts; he exhales audibly; he allows his voice to crack") and its timing by his usage of rubato to slightly offset the sung notes from the beat.[64] For author Susan Fast, "With or Without You" marks the first track on which he "extended his vocal range downward in an appreciable way".[65]

Bono is credited as the album's sole lyricist.[51] Thematically, the album juxtaposes antipathy towards the United States against the band's deep fascination with the country, its open spaces, freedoms, and ideals. Anger is directed particularly at the perceived greed of the Ronald Reagan administration and its foreign policy in Central America.[66] Bono said, "I started to see two Americas, the mythic America and the real America",[67] hence the album's working title, The Two Americas.[1] Having toured the US extensively in the past, the group were inspired by the country's geography. As such, the desert, rain, dust, and water appear as lyrical motifs throughout the record.[68][69] In many cases, the desert is used as a metaphor for "spiritual drought".[67] One track that chiefly represents these themes is "In God's Country", which critic Barbara Jaeger interpreted as addressing America's role as the "promised land".[70] Clayton explained the impact of the desert imagery: "The desert was immensely inspirational to us as a mental image for this record. Most people would take the desert on face value and think it's some kind of barren place, which of course is true. But in the right frame of mind, it's also a very positive image, because you can actually do something with blank canvas, which is effectively what the desert is."[71]

â€”Bono, on the album's thematic inspirations, in 1987[8]

Political and social concerns were the basis for several tracks. Bono wrote the lyrics for "Bullet the Blue Sky" after visiting El Salvador during the Salvadoran Civil War and witnessing how the conflict between rebels and the US-backed government affected local civilians.[31] During the mid-song spoken passage, he talks of a man with a "face red like a rose on a thorn bush", a reference to Reagan.[72] Bono's trip also inspired "Mothers of the Disappeared", after he met members of COMADRES—the Mothers of the Disappeared—a group of women whose children were killed or "disappeared" during the civil war at the hands of the local government.[35] The 1984 UK mining strike inspired the lyrics for "Red Hill Mining Town", which Bono wrote from the perspective of a couple affected by the strike. The story of a heroin-addicted couple was the basis for "Running to Stand Still", which Bono set in the Ballymun Flats residential towers in Dublin near which he was raised. The buildings are referenced in the lyric "I see seven towers / But I only see one way out".[5] For "Where the Streets Have No Name", he wrote the lyrics in response to the idea that, in Belfast, a person's religion and income can be deduced based on the street they live on.[8] "Exit" portrays the thoughts of a psychotic killer,[32] although Clayton suggested that the line "He saw the hands that build could also pull down" is also a jab at the US government's conflicting roles in international relations.[73]

Bono described 1986 as "an incredibly bad year" for him,[14] which was reflected in the lyrics. His marriage was under strain, in part due to the album's long gestation period, the band were criticised by the Irish media for their involvement in Self Aid, and his personal assistant Greg Carroll was killed in a motorcycle accident.[39] Bono said, "That's why the desert attracted me as an image. That year was really a desert for us."[31] "With or Without You" was written while he was struggling to reconcile his wanderlust as a musician with his domestic responsibilities.[55] "One Tree Hill", named after a volcanic peak in Carroll's native New Zealand, describes how Bono felt at Carroll's funeral.[67][30] The album is dedicated to his memory.[51]

The group's religious faith was a source of inspiration for many lyrics. On "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", Bono affirms this faith but sings of spiritual doubt ("I believe in Kingdom Come"... "But I still haven't found what I'm looking for").[51][74] Some critics surmised that the place Bono is referring to on "Where the Streets Have No Name" is Heaven.[75][76] These two songs were singled out by some critics as demonstrating that the band was on a "spiritual quest".[70][75] Hot Press editor Niall Stokes and Richard Harrington of The Washington Post interpreted "With or Without You" in both romantic and spiritual manners.[11][77] Biblical references are made on other songs like "Bullet the Blue Sky" ("Jacob wrestled the angel", images of fire and brimstone) and "In God's Country" ("I stand with the sons of Cain").[51] Thom Duffy interpreted the album as an exploration of the "uncertainty and pain of a spiritual pilgrimage through a bleak and harsh world".[63]

Designed by Steve Averill,[51] the album sleeve was based on U2's request to depict the record's "imagery, and cinematic location" in the desert.[32] Since the album's provisional titles were The Desert Songs[78] and The Two Americas,[1] the initial concept for the sleeve was to represent where the desert met civilisation.[1] The group decided early in the creative process to photograph in the US, contrasting with all of their previous albums, which had been shot in Ireland.[68] They asked their photographer Anton Corbijn to search for locations in the US that would capture their ideas.[32] A week prior to the photo shoot, he travelled to the US to compile a list of locations.[79]

Over several days in December 1986,[35][80] U2 travelled with Corbijn and Averill on a bus around the Mojave Desert for a photo shoot.[32] The group stayed in small hotels and shot in the desert landscape, beginning at Reno, Nevada, before moving to locations in California such as the ghost town of Bodie, the Harmony Hotel in Twentynine Palms, Zabriskie Point, Death Valley Junction, and other sites in Death Valley.[79][80][81] Corbijn rented a panoramic camera to capture more of the desert landscapes, but having no prior experience with the camera, he was unfamiliar with how to focus it. This led to him focusing on the background and leaving the band slightly out of focus. Corbijn said, "Fortunately there was a lot of light."[31] Averill filmed portions of the trip with an 8 mm film camera. The photo shoots took place in the mornings and evenings, with mid-days spent travelling and on preparation.[79] Corbijn later recounted that the main idea of the shoot was to juxtapose "man and environment, the Irish in America".[82] Averill said of their photographic approach, "What I was trying to do with the way we shot the pictures and framed the cover was to suggest the landscape vision and cinematic approach that was taken to the recording."[79]

On the evening after the first day's shooting, Corbijn told the band about Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia), hardy and twisted plants in the deserts of the American Southwest, and he suggested their use on the sleeve.[1] Bono was pleased to discover the religious significance of the plant's etymology;[78] according to Mormon legend, early settlers named the plant after the Old Testament prophet Joshua, as the tree's stretching branches reminded them of Joshua raising his hands in prayer.[83] The following day, Bono declared that the album should be titled The Joshua Tree.[78] That morning,[79] while driving on Route 190 near Darwin, they spotted a lone-standing tree in the desert.[17] Corbijn had been hoping to find a single tree, as he thought it would result in better photographs than if he shot the band amongst a group of trees.[78] They stopped the bus and photographed with the lone plant for about 20 minutes, something the Edge called "fairly spontaneous".[66] Despite shooting in the desert, the group dealt with cold weather during parts of the trip. Bono explained, "it was freezing and we had to take our coats off so it would at least look like a desert. That's one of the reasons we look so grim."[84] Regarding the serious tone of the images, Corbijn said, "I guess people felt they took themselves too seriously. It was definitely the most serious, I think, that you can photograph a band. You couldn't go any further down that line unless you start photographing graves."[31]

â€”Don McLeese of Chicago Sun-Times, on the album title as a metaphor for the songs[85]

For the vinyl record release, Corbijn originally wanted to have a shot of the Joshua tree on the front of the sleeve, with U2 in a continuation of the photograph on the back.[1] Averill tried out a concept with just the landscape on the front that he said resembled a "jazz ECM record".[79] Ultimately, separate photographs were used for each side of the sleeve; an image of the group at Zabriskie Point was placed on the front,[35] while an image of them with the tree appears on the back cover.[68] For the front cover, Averill said that the framing of the band in the left half of the photo was meant to evoke the cinematography of film directors John Ford and Sergio Leone. The center gatefold showed an image of U2 with the Joshua tree in the center; a mirror used by them to check their appearance was mistakenly left in frame. Since the compact disc was a relatively new format at the time, the creative team decided to experiment with the album cover, selecting different cover images for each format on which the album was released; early pressings on compact disc and cassette tape used a blurry, distorted photo of the band.[79] Rolling Stone said that the album's title and the images of the tree befit a record concerned with "resilience in the face of utter social and political desolation, a record steeped in religious imagery".[86] In 1991, the magazine ranked The Joshua Tree at number 97 on its list of the "100 Greatest Album Covers of All Time".[87]

The tree photographed for the sleeve fell around 2000,[88] yet the site remains a popular tourist attraction for U2 fans.[17] One person inserted a plaque into the ground reading, "Have you found what you're looking for?", in reference to the album's track "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".[89] It is a common misconception that the site is within Joshua Tree National Park, when in fact it is over 200 miles away from the park. In 2011, Guus van Hove, the director of the Dutch music venue 013, and his girlfriend died of heat exhaustion in a remote part of that park, allegedly searching for the site of U2's tree.[90]

Just prior to the release of The Joshua Tree, Bono was stricken with a sudden panic about the quality of the completed album. He said that he contemplated calling the production plants to order a halt of the record's pressing, but he ultimately held off.[91] Island Records spent over $100,000 on store displays advertising the album; president Lou Maglia called it "the most complete merchandising effort ever assembled".[92] The Joshua Tree was released on 9Â March 1987,[92] with an initial shipment of 300,000 copies in the US.[93] It was the first new release to be made available on the compact disc, vinyl record, and cassette tape formats on the same date.[92] Record stores in Britain and Ireland opened at midnight to accommodate the large number of fans who had queued outside to buy the album.[31][94]

The Joshua Tree debuted on the UK Albums Chart on 21 March 1987 at number one with 235,000 copies sold in its opening week, making it the fastest-selling album in UK history to that point.[95][96] It received a platinum certification in the UK within 48 hours of being released.[97] The album spent two weeks atop the UK Albums Chart[98] and appeared on it for a total of 201 weeks, ranking it among the longest-charting albums in UK history.[98] On the US Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, the album debuted on 4 April 1987 at number seven,[99] the highest debut for a studio album in the US in almost seven years.[100] Within three weeks, it reached number one,[97] becoming the group's first album to top the charts in the US.[101] It remained at that position for nine consecutive weeks,[102] the band's longest number-one reign on the chart[103] and the second-longest reign in the US that year.[104] The album spent a total of 120 weeks on the Billboard Top Pop Albums,[105] 35 of them in the top ten.[100] On 13 May 1987, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album double-platinum.[106] All of the group's previous albums re-entered the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart in 1987.[107] In Canada, the album debuted at number 51 on the RPM Top 100 Albums chart on 21 March 1987,[108] and climbed to number one just two weeks later.[109] Within 14 days of release, it sold 300,000 units in Canada and was certified triple-platinum.[110] The Joshua Tree also topped the charts in Austria, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Sweden.[111] In total, the album reached number one in over 20 countries.[17] Rolling Stone said that the album increased the band's stature "from heroes to superstars".[112] It was the first album by any artist to sell one million copies on CD in the US.[92] U2 were featured on the cover of the 27 April 1987 issue of Time, which declared them "Rock's Hottest Ticket";[113] they were just the fourth rock band to appear on the magazine's cover, following the Beatles, the Band, and the Who.[114]

"Where the Streets Have No Name" was released in August 1987 as the third single, with "Sweetest Thing", "Silver and Gold", and "Race Against Time" as B-sides.[123] The single reached number seven in the Netherlands,[111] number four on the UK Singles Chart, and number 13 in the US.[16] The album's first three singles all topped the Irish Singles Charts,[124] while charting within the top 20 of the singles charts in the UK,[95] the US,[125] Canada,[116] New Zealand,[126] and the Netherlands.[111] "In God's Country" was released as a fourth single exclusively in North America in November 1987,[127] peaking at number 44 on the Hot 100[125] and number 48 as an import single in the UK.[95] "One Tree Hill" was released as a fourth single in Australia and New Zealand in March 1988,[128][129] and having been written for the New Zealand-native Carroll, it reached number one in his home country.[126] By the end of 1988, The Joshua Tree had sold more than 14Â million copies worldwide.[130]

In 1996, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab remastered the album and released it as a special gold CD. This edition rectified the incorrect track splitting between "One Tree Hill" and "Exit" that affected some CD releases; the quiet coda that concludes "One Tree Hill" had previously been included in the same track as "Exit".[131][132]

Following its 30th anniversary reissue, The Joshua Tree re-entered the Billboard 200 chart the week of 8 June 2017, climbing to number 16â€”its highest position on the chart since 13 February 1988. That week, it shifted 27,000 album-equivalent units, 23,000 of which were sales, making it the album's highest-selling week in the US since 3 January 1993.[133]

The Joshua Tree received critical acclaim, and the best reviews of U2's career to that point. Rolling Stone wrote, "For a band that's always specialized in inspirational, larger-than-life gestures—a band utterly determined to be Important—The Joshua Tree could be the big one, and that's precisely what it sounds like."[86] The review described the album's sound as "wed[ding] the diverse textures of The Unforgettable Fire to fully formed songs, many of them as aggressive as the hits on War".[86] Steve Morse of The Boston Globe echoed these sentiments in his review, stating, "It's another spiritual progress report, enwrapped in music that strikes a healthy balance between the lushness of their last album, 1984's The Unforgettable Fire, and the more volcanic rock of their early years." Morse called it "their most challenging work to date" and the "most rewarding rock record of the new year".[75] NME praised the album as "a better and braver record than anything else that's likely to appear in 1987... It's the sound of people still trying, still looking..."[142] Thom Duffy of the Orlando Sentinel said the songs have "exultant power" that, "like the Joshua Tree's branches, stretch upward in stark contrast to their barren musical surroundings on rock radio". He praised the musicianship of the group members, calling Bono's vocals "wrenching", the rhythm section of Mullen and Clayton "razor-sharp", and the Edge's guitar playing "never... better".[63] The New Zealand Herald called The Joshua Tree "the most compelling collection of music yet from a band that has cut its career with passionate, exciting slashes". It judged that the record's "power lies in its restraint" and that there is an "urgency underlying virtually all of the 11 songs".[56]

Q's Paul Du Noyer said that the source of The Joshua Tree's "potency lies in a kind of spiritual frustration – a sense of hunger and tension which roams its every track in search of some climactic moment of release, of fulfilment, that never arrives." He concluded his review by writing that the music "has the one thing vital to worthwhile rock, a thing so often absent: the urge to exist".[139] Spin hailed the record as U2's "first wholly successful album because it finally breaks free from the seductive but limiting chant-and-drone approach of earlier material". The review stated, "There isn't a bad song on the record" and that "every one has a hook". The magazine praised U2 for eschewing ambient experimentation in favour of uncomplicated but layered arrangements.[62] Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times said the album "confirms on record what this band has been slowly asserting for three years now on stage: U2 is what the Rolling Stones ceased being years ago—the greatest rock and roll band in the world". Hilburn noted that the band showed "sometimes breathtaking signs of growth" and played more "tailored and assured" music.[60] Hot Press editor and longtime U2 supporter Bill Graham said that "The Joshua Tree rescues rock from its decay, bravely and unashamedly basing itself in the mainstream before very cleverly lifting off into several higher dimensions," and that U2 "must be taken very seriously indeed after this revaluation of rock".[143] John Rockwell of The New York Times was complimentary of the band for expanding its musical range but said Bono's vocals were "marred throughout by sobbing affectation" and sounded too much like other singers, resulting in a "curious loss of individuality".[144] The Houston Chronicle's Marty Racine felt it has "music that both soothes and inspires, music that is anthemic, music with style". Racine, however, believed the group took itself too seriously, resulting in a record that is "not a whole lot of fun, bordering on the pretentious", which caused him to lose interest by the second side.[137] Robert Christgau from The Village Voice found the lyrics tasteful and the music "mournful and passionate, stately and involved", but lamented what he felt was pompous singing by Bono, calling it "one of the worst cases of significance ever to afflict a deserving candidate for superstardom".[141]

In a retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said "their focus has never been clearer, nor has their music been catchier". His review concluded, "Never before have U2's big messages sounded so direct and personal."[134] Entertainment Weekly's Bill Wyman wrote that the album combined "easy-to-grasp themes — alienation and an outsider’s ambivalent view of America — with an extremely focused musical attack".[136] A 2008 retrospective by Q said "their reinvention of stadium rock sounds as impassioned as ever" and that the album strikes "a finely balanced mix of intimacy and power".[145] Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone compared the album to Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A., stating that both records "lifted a populist artist to mega-stardom", and that the musicians' uplifting live shows and the "sheer aural pleasure" of the two records obscured their foreboding nature. DeCurtis summarized The Joshua Tree's examination of America both lyrically and musically as such:[5]

"The wild beauty, cultural richness, spiritual vacancy and ferocious violence of America are explored to compelling effect in virtually every aspect of The Joshua Tree—in the title and the cover art, the blues and country borrowings evident in the music ... Indeed, Bono says that 'dismantling the mythology of America' is an important part of The Joshua Tree's artistic objective."

In voting for Rolling Stone's 1987 end-of-year readers' polls, U2 won in the categories "Best Album", "Artist of the Year", "Best Band", "Best Single ("With or Without You)", and "Best Male Singer" (Bono).[146] The album placed fourth on the "Best Albums" list from The Village Voice's 1987 Pazz & Jop critics' poll.[147] In 1988, U2 received four Grammy Award nominations for the album and its songs, winning honors for Album of the Year (beating artists such as Michael Jackson, Prince, and Whitney Houston) and Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocal for The Joshua Tree.[104][148] "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year, but lost in both categories. That year, U2 were the only act nominated in each of the "Big Three" categories (Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year).[104]

Following the album's release, U2 embarked on a worldwide concert tour, the Joshua Tree Tour. Lasting from April to December 1987, it comprised 109 shows over three legs.[149] The first and third legs visited the US, while the second leg toured Europe.[31] The Joshua Tree elevated the group to a new level of popularity; the tour sold out arenas and stadiums around the world—the first time they consistently performed at venues of that size—and it played to over 3 million people.[31] Songs from the album became staples of the tour's set lists, as the group regularly performed eight of the record's eleven tracks, and the only song not to be played was "Red Hill Mining Town".[149]

Like their previous tours, The Joshua Tree Tour was a minimalistic, austere production,[150] and U2 used this outlet for addressing political and social concerns.[151] One such issue was Arizona Governor Evan Mecham's canceling the state's observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.[31] Throughout the tour, the group continued to explore American roots music: they collaborated with folk artist Bob Dylan, blues musician B. B. King, and Harlem's New Voices of Freedom gospel choir; U2 also visited Graceland and Sun Studios in Memphis, where they recorded new material.[31] These new songs and the band's experiences on tour were documented for the 1988 Rattle and Hum album and Phil Joanou-directed motion picture.

The tour grossed $40 million[130] and drew 3 million attendees,[31] but despite its commercial success and positive reviews, U2 were dissatisfied creatively, and Bono believed they were musically unprepared for their success.[152][153] Mullen said, "We were the biggest, but we weren't the best",[152] and for Bono the tour was "one of the worst times of [their] musical life".[31] On the road, the group dealt with death threats, along with injuries that Bono sustained from performing. The band hinted that the stresses of touring led them to enjoy the "rock and roll lifestyle" they previously avoided.[31]

â€”PopMatters, in 2007[154]

The Joshua Tree is the band's best-selling album, and with 25 million copies sold worldwide,[155] it is among the best-selling albums of all time. It ranks as one of the best-selling albums in the US. In 1995, the RIAA certified it 10× platinum for shipping 10 million units, and the album subsequently received the Diamond Award for reaching this level.[106] Similarly, the Canadian Recording Industry Association certified the album diamond in Canada.[156] In the UK, The Joshua Tree ranks as the 36th-highest-selling record with 2.8 million copies sold,[157][158] having been certified 8× platinum, with an additional silver certification for the 20th anniversary edition.[159] In the Pacific, it is certified 5× platinum and 14× platinum in Australia and New Zealand, respectively.[160][161]

The Joshua Tree has been acclaimed by writers and music critics as one of the greatest albums of all time; according to Acclaimed Music, it is the 41st-highest-ranked record on critics' lists.[162] In 1997, The Guardian collated worldwide data from a range of renowned critics, artists, and radio DJs, who placed the record at number 57 on the list of the "100 Best Albums Ever".[163] In 2006, Time named it as one of the magazine's 100 best albums,[164] while Hot Press ranked it 11th on a similar list.[165] Q named it one of the 40 greatest records from the 1980s,[166] while Entertainment Weekly included the album on its list of the 100 best records released between 1983 and 2008.[167] In 2010, the album appeared at number 62 on Spin's list of the 125 most influential albums in the 25 years since the magazine launched. The publication said, "The band's fifth album spit out hits like crazy, and they were unusually searching hits, each with a pointed political edge."[168] Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album at number 27 on their 2012 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", calling it "an album that turns spiritual quests and political struggles into uplifting stadium singalongs". It was U2's best position on the list.[169] That year, in Slant Magazine's list of the "Best Albums of the 1980s", the publication said that The Joshua Tree's opening trio of songs helped "the band became lords and emperors of anthemic '80s rock" and that "U2 no longer belonged to Dublin, but the world."[170] The Buffalo News said the record "made [U2] the first mainstream band since the Beatles to capture the spirit of the age in a manner that was both populist and artistically, politically and socially incisive".[171] In 2014, The Joshua Tree was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for becoming "part of our musical, social, and cultural history".[172] That same year, the album was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the US Library of Congress for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[173] It is the only Irish work to be so honoured.[174]

The band's penchant for addressing political and social issues, as well as their staid depiction in Corbijn's black-and-white sleeve photographs, contributed to the group's earnest and serious image as "stone-faced pilgrim[s]". This image became a target for derision after the band's critically maligned Rattle and Hum project in 1988.[31] Various critics called them "po-faced",[175] "pompous bores",[57] and "humourless".[176] The group's continued exploration of American music for the project was labelled "pretentious"[177] and "misguided and bombastic".[178] After Bono told fans on the 1989 Lovetown Tour that U2 would "dream it all up again", the band reinvented themselves in the 1990s. They incorporated alternative rock, electronic dance music, and industrial music into their sound, and adopted a more ironic, flippant image by which they embraced the "rock star" identity they struggled with in the 1980s.[179] Bono referred to their 1991 album Achtung Baby as "the sound of four men chopping down the Joshua Tree".[57] Author Bill Flanagan summarised the impact of The Joshua Tree on the group's career in his liner notes for the album's 20th anniversary release: "The Joshua Tree made U2 into international rock stars and established both a standard they would always have to live up to and an image they would forever try to live down."[180]

On 20Â November 2007, a 20th anniversary edition of The Joshua Tree was released.[181] The album was remastered from the original analogue recordings under the direction of the Edge,[182][183] with the original vinyl album artwork restored.[154] The release was made available in four formats: a single CD; a two-disc deluxe edition with a bonus audio CD of B-sides, rarities, and demos; a three-disc box set with the bonus audio CD and DVD, photograph prints, and hardcover book; and a double vinyl edition. All editions included liner notes by author Bill Flanagan and previously unseen photographs by Anton Corbijn.[182] Manager Paul McGuinness explained, "There has been continuous demand from U2 fans to have The Joshua Tree properly re-mastered. As always, the band had to make sure it was right, and now it is."[182] Some formats include expanded liner notes from the band members, the production team, and Anton Corbijn.[184] In an otherwise favourable review of the remastered album, Andrew Mueller of Uncut said that "any casual listener who can perceive a meaningful difference between this and the original has i) ears like a bat and/or ii) needs to get out more".[57]

The bonus audio CD contains 14 additional tracks,[185] including the B-sides "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)", "Walk to the Water", "Spanish Eyes", "Deep in the Heart", "Silver and Gold", "Sweetest Thing", and "Race Against Time".[182] Two versions of "Silver and Gold" are includedâ€”U2's version, and the original recording from the Sun City album by Bono, Keith Richards, and others.[186] The edited single version of "Where the Streets Have No Name" appears on the bonus CD. "Beautiful Ghost/Introduction to Songs of Experience" contains lyrics from the introduction of William Blake's Songs of Experience,[57] while "Drunk Chicken/America" contains an excerpt of Allen Ginsberg's recitation of his poem, "America".[187] "Wave of Sorrow (Birdland)", "Desert of Our Love", "Rise Up", and "Drunk Chicken/America" are all previously unreleased recordings from The Joshua Tree sessions.[188]

The bonus DVD includes live concert footage, a documentary, and two music videos. The disc includes Live from Paris, an 85-minute concert from 4Â July 1987 that was originally broadcast on British television in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Island Records.[189][184] The documentary, titled Outside It's America, was a 1987 MTV production about The Joshua Tree Tour. The two music videos are an alternate version "With or Without You" and the previously unreleased video for "Red Hill Mining Town". Footage of U2's alter ego country band, the Dalton Brothers, is included on the disc as an Easter egg.[184]

For the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree, U2 staged a 2017 concert tour in North America, Europe, and Latin America, on which the album was played in its entirety at each show.[190][191] It was the first time the group toured in promotion of an album from their back catalogue, rather than a new release.[192] As part of the tour, U2 headlined the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee in June.[193] In rationalising the tour, the Edge cited the 2016 US presidential election and other world events for what he judged to be renewed resonance of The Joshua Tree's subject matter.[194] He said that in looking at the record's anniversary, "things have kind of come full circle, if you want. That record was written in the mid-Eighties, during the Reagan–Thatcher era of British and U.S. politics. It was a period when there was a lot of unrest. Thatcher was in the throes of trying to put down the miners' strike; there was all kinds of shenanigans going on in Central America. It feels like we're right back there in a way. I don't think any of our work has ever come full circle to that extent. It just felt like, 'Wow, these songs have a new meaning and a new resonance today that they didn't have three years ago, four years ago.'"[194] The tour grossed more than $316 million from over 2.7 million tickets sold,[195] making it the highest-grossing tour of the year.[196]

On 2 June 2017, the album was reissued in several formats in commemoration of its 30th anniversary.[197] Standard editions of the album were released on CD, vinyl record, and via digital download.[198] Deluxe editions, available on CD and digitally, include a concert recording of a 1987 show at Madison Square Garden from the Joshua Tree Tour.[199] In addition to the concert, the super deluxe editions, available on CD, vinyl record, and digitally, include: B-sides and rarities; and remixes of the album's songs made in 2017 by Daniel Lanois, St Francis Hotel, Jacknife Lee, Steve Lillywhite, and Flood.[197][198][200] The physical copies of the super deluxe edition include eight folio prints and an 84-page book of photography shot by the Edge during the album cover's 1986 photoshoot in the Mojave Desert.[199] The 2017 remix of "Red Hill Mining Town" was released as a vinyl picture disc for Record Store Day in April.[201]

All lyrics written by Bono; all music composed by U2.

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone

*The 20th anniversary edition received an additional Silver certification in the UK.


who won the marathon race in the 2004 athens olympics

The 26.2 miles (42.2Â km) journey began in Marathon. The top contenders all found themselves in a large leading group that held a modest pace through the half marathon. A few tried to surge ahead but the most successful was Vanderlei De Lima's attack at 20k. Past 25k, Stefano Baldini raised the tempo taking seven others with him. Finally, the chase group had been whittled down to three: Stefano Baldini, Paul Tergat, and Mebrahtom Keflezighi. After 35k was passed, Tergat (the world record holder) cracked, leaving two runners to chase behind. Baldini then closed the gap to De Lima after the latter was attacked while dropping Keflezighi. Baldini moved into the lead and took it home for the gold medal in 2:10:55.[2] Keflezighi caught the fading De Lima as well to take the silver in 2:11:29. Finishing at 2:12:11, De Lima was able to hold off Jon Brown, beating him by 15 seconds for the bronze.[3]

Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

The men's marathon at the 2004 Summer Olympics took place on August 29 in the streets of Athens, Greece. These streets were recently painted for the event, which provided an excellent road surface for the athletes. Drawing upon the ancient origins of the race, the marathon began in Marathon, Greece, and eventually ended at Panathinaiko Stadium, the venue previously used for the 1896 Athens Olympics.[1]

As with the previous Games, the marathon also marked the end of the 2004 Summer Olympics and the medal ceremony took place during the closing ceremony at the Olympic Stadium.

The event was marked by an incident in which Cornelius Horan, an Irish protester, grappled Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil while de Lima was leading the event with around 7 kilometers remaining. Greek spectator Polyvios Kossivas helped Vanderlei free from Horan's grasp and back into his running. De Lima lost about 15 to 20 seconds of time because of the interruption, and finished third in the event with a time of 2:12:11, winning the bronze medal. De Lima was awarded the rarely awarded Pierre de Coubertin Medal for sportsmanship in addition to his bronze. Despite the fact that the incident had seriously hindered his chances of winning the gold or silver medal, he did not complain and graciously acknowledged the crowd's cheers in the home straight. The protester had a sign on his back that read "The Grand Prix Priest. Israel Fulfilment of Prophecy Says The Bible. The Second Coming is Near." He later apologized for possibly costing de Lima the gold.[4]

The phrase "Grand Prix Priest" refers to Horan's previous protest, in which he ran onto the track at the Silverstone Circuit during the 2003 British Grand Prix, intentionally running directly into the path of oncoming cars.

Prior to the competition[update], the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

No new records were set during the competition.

The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the men's marathon, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 2:15:00 or faster during the qualification period. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run the race in 2:18:00 or faster could be entered.

All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)


where is new caledonia located in related to australia

New Caledonia (French: Nouvelle-Calédonie)[nb 1] is a special collectivity of France in the southwest Pacific Ocean, 1,210 km (750 mi) east of Australia and 16,136 km (10,026 mi) east of Metropolitan France.[4] The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines, and a few remote islets.[5] The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea. Locals refer to Grande Terre as Le Caillou ("the pebble").[6]

New Caledonia

Coordinates: 21°15′S 165°18′E / 21.25°S 165.30°E / -21.25; 165.30

New Caledonia has a land area of 18,576 km2 (7,172 sq mi). Its population of 268,767 (Aug. 2014 census)[2] consists of a mix of Kanak people (the original inhabitants of New Caledonia), people of European descent (Caldoches and Metropolitan French), Polynesian people (mostly Wallisians), and Southeast Asian people, as well as a few people of Pied-Noir and Maghreban descent. The capital of the territory is Nouméa.[4]

The earliest traces of human presence in New Caledonia date back to the Lapita period.[7] The Lapita were highly skilled navigators and agriculturists with influence over a large area of the Pacific.[8]

British explorer Captain James Cook was the first European to sight New Caledonia, on 4 September 1774, during his second voyage.[9] He named it "New Caledonia", as the northeast of the island reminded him of Scotland.[9] The west coast of Grande Terre was approached by Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse in 1788, shortly before his disappearance, and the Loyalty Islands were first visited in 1796.[9] From then until 1840, only a few sporadic contacts with the archipelago were recorded.[9] Contacts became more frequent after 1840, because of the interest in sandalwood from New Caledonia.[7]

As trade in sandalwood declined, it was replaced by a new form of trade, "blackbirding", a euphemism for tricking Melanesian or Western Pacific Islanders drawn from New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, New Hebrides, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands to work in the sugar cane plantations in Fiji and Queensland.[10] Blackbirding was practiced by both French and British-Australian traders, but in New Caledonia's case, the trade in the early decades of the twentieth century involved relocating children from the Loyalty islands to the Grand Terre for labour in plantation agriculture. New Caledonia's primary experience with black birding revolved around a trade from the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) to the Grand Terre for labour in plantation agriculture, mines, as well as guards over convicts and in some public works. The historian Dorothy Shineberg's milestone study, The People Trade, discusses this'migration'. In the early years of the trade, coercion was used to lure Melanesian islanders onto ships; in later years indenture systems were developed, however, when it came to the French trade in people, which took place between its Melanesian colonies of the New Hebrides and New Caledonia, very few regulations were implemented. This represented a departure from the British experience, since increased regulations were developed to mitigate the abuses of black birding and recruitment strategies on the coast lines.

The first missionaries from the London Missionary Society and the Marist Brothers arrived in the 1840s.[11] In 1849, the crew of the American ship Cutter was killed and eaten by the Pouma clan.[12] Cannibalism was widespread throughout New Caledonia.[13]

On 24 September 1853, under orders from Napoleon III, Admiral Febvrier Despointes took formal possession of New Caledonia and Port-de-France (Nouméa) was founded on 25 June 1854.[9] A few dozen free settlers settled on the west coast in the following years.[9] New Caledonia became a penal colony, and from the 1860s until the end of the transportations in 1897, about 22,000 criminals and political prisoners were sent to New Caledonia. The Bulletin de la Société générale des prisons for 1888 indicates that 10,428 convicts, including 2,329 freed ones, were on the island as of 1 May 1888, by far the largest number of convicts detained in overseas penitentiaries.[14] Among the convicts were many Communards arrested after the failed Paris Commune, including Henri de Rochefort and Louise Michel.[15] Between 1873 and 1876, 4,200 political prisoners were "relegated" in New Caledonia.[9] Only 40 of them settled in the colony; the rest returned to France after being granted amnesty in 1879 and 1880.[9]

In 1864, nickel was discovered on the banks of the Diahot River and with the establishment of the Société Le Nickel in 1876, mining began in earnest.[16] The French imported labourers to work in the mines from neighbouring islands and the New Hebrides, and later from Japan, the Dutch East Indies, and French Indochina.[15] The French government also attempted to encourage European immigration, without much success.[15]

The indigenous population or Kanak were excluded from the French economy and from mining work, ultimately confined to reservations.[15] This sparked a violent reaction in 1878 as High Chief Atal of La Foa managed to unite many of the central tribes and launched a guerrilla war which cost 200 Frenchmen and 1,000 Kanaks their lives.[16] A second guerrilla war took place in 1917, with Catholic missionaries like Maurice Leenhardt functioning as witnesses to the events of this war. Leenhardt would pen a number of ethnographic works on the Kanak of New Caledonia. Noel of Tiamou led the 1917 rebellion, which created a number of orphans, one of which was taken into the care of Protestant Missionary Alphonse Rouel; Wenceslas Thi who would become the father of Jean-Marie Tjibaou.[17]

The Europeans brought new diseases such as smallpox and measles. Many people died as a result of these diseases.[12] The Kanak population declined from around 60,000 in 1878 to 27,100 in 1921, and their numbers did not increase again until the 1930s.[16]

In June 1940, after the fall of France, the Conseil General of New Caledonia voted unanimously to support the Free French government, and in September the pro-Vichy governor was forced to leave for Indochina.[16] In March 1942, with the assistance of Australia,[18] the territory became an important Allied base,[16] and Nouméa the headquarters of the United States Navy and Army in the South Pacific.[19] The fleet that turned back the Japanese navy in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942 was based at Nouméa.[16] American troops numbered as many as 50,000, the equivalent of the contemporary population.[9]

In 1946, New Caledonia became an overseas territory.[9] By 1953, French citizenship had been granted to all New Caledonians, regardless of ethnicity.[20]

The European and Polynesian populations gradually increased in the years leading to the nickel boom of 1969–1972, and the Melanesians became a minority, though they were still the largest ethnic group.[20] Between 1976 and 1988, New Caledonia adopted five statutes.[which?] Each became a source of discontent and serious disorder,[9] culminating in 1988 with a bloody hostage-taking in Ouvéa. The Matignon Agreements, signed on 26 June 1988, ensured a decade of stability. The Noumea Accord signed 5 May 1998, set the groundwork for a 20-year transition that will gradually transfer competences to the local government.[9]

New Caledonia is a territory sui generis to which France has gradually transferred certain powers.[21] It is governed by a 54-member Territorial Congress, a legislative body composed of members of three provincial assemblies.[22] The French State is represented in the territory by a High Commissioner.[22] At a national level, New Caledonia is represented in the French Parliament by two deputies and two senators.[23] At the 2012 French presidential election, the voter turnout in New Caledonia was 61.19%.[24]

For 25 years, the party system in New Caledonia was dominated by the anti-independence The Rally–UMP.[22] This dominance ended with the emergence of a new party, Avenir Ensemble, also opposed to independence, but considered more open to dialogue with the Kanak movement,[22] which is part of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front, a coalition of several pro-independence groups.[22]

The Kanak society has several layers of customary authority, from the 4,000–5,000 family-based clans to the eight customary areas (aires coutumières) that make up the territory.[25] Clans are led by clan chiefs and constitute 341 tribes, each headed by a tribal chief. The tribes are further grouped into 57 customary chiefdoms (chefferies), each headed by a head chief, and forming the administrative subdivisions of the customary areas.[25]

The Customary Senate is the assembly of the various traditional councils of the Kanaks, and has jurisdiction over the law proposals concerning the Kanak identity.[26] The Customary Senate is composed of 16 members appointed by each traditional council, with two representatives per each customary area.[26] In its advisory role, the Customary Senate must be consulted on law proposals "concerning the Kanak identity" as defined in the NoumÃ©a Accord.[26] It also has a deliberative role on law proposals that would affect identity, the civil customary statute, and the land system.[26] A new president is appointed each year in August or September, and the presidency rotates between the eight customary areas.[26]

Kanak people have recourse to customary authorities regarding civil matters such as marriage, adoption, inheritance, and some land issues.[25] The French administration typically respects decisions made in the customary system.[25] However, their jurisdiction is sharply limited in penal matters, as some matters relating to the customary justice system, including the use of corporal punishment, are seen as clashing with the human rights obligations of France.[25]

The Armed Forces of New Caledonia (French: Forces armées de Nouvelle-Calédonie) FANC, include about 2,000 soldiers, mainly deployed in Koumac, Nandaï, Tontouta, Plum, and Noumea.[27] The land forces consist of a regiment of the Troupes de marine, the Régiment d'infanterie de marine du Pacifique. The naval forces include two P400-class patrol vessels, a BATRAL, and a patrol boat of the Maritime Gendarmerie.[27] The air force is made up of three Casa transport aircraft, four Puma helicopters and a Fennec helicopter, based in Tontouta.[27] In addition, 760 gendarmes are deployed on the archipelago.[27]

Since 1986, the United Nations Committee on Decolonization has included New Caledonia on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.[28] An independence referendum was held the following year, but independence was rejected by a large majority.

Under the Nouméa Accord, signed in 1998 following a period of secessionist unrest in the 1980s and approved in a referendum, New Caledonia is to hold a second referendum on independence between 2014 and 2018.[29] The official date of the referendum has been set for 2018, the year the Nouméa Accord expires.[30]

The official name of the territory, Nouvelle-CalÃ©donie, could be changed in the near future due to the accord, which stated that "a name, a flag, an anthem, a motto, and the design of banknotes will have to be sought by all parties together, to express the Kanak identity and the future shared by all parties."[31] To date, however, there has been no consensus on a new name for the territory.[32] New Caledonia has increasingly adopted its own symbols, choosing an anthem, a motto, and a new design for its banknotes.[33] In July 2010, New Caledonia adopted the Kanak flag, alongside the existing French tricolor, as dual official flags of the territory.[34] The adoption made New Caledonia one of the few countries or territories in the world with two official national flags.[34] The decision to use two flags has been a constant battleground between the two sides and led the coalition government to collapse in February 2011.[29]

The institutional organization is the result of the organic law and ordinary law passed by the Parliament on 16 February 1999.[21]

The archipelago is divided into three provinces:

New Caledonia is further divided into 33 municipalities:[21] One commune, Poya, is divided between two provinces. The northern half of Poya, with the main settlement and most of the population, is part of the North Province, while the southern half of the commune, with only 127 inhabitants in 2009, is part of the South Province. The communes, with 2015 populations in brackets, and administrative centres, are as follows:

Loyalty Islands Province

Notes: * provincial capital. The population of the southern part of Poya commune is included in that for the northern part.

New Caledonia is part of Zealandia, a fragment of the ancient Gondwana super-continent. It is speculated that New Caledonia separated from Australia roughly 66 million years ago, subsequently drifting in a north-easterly direction, reaching its present position about 50 million years ago.[35]

The mainland is divided in length by a central mountain range whose highest peaks are Mont Panié (1,629 metres (5,344 ft)) in the north and Mont Humboldt (1,618 m (5,308 ft)) in the southeast.[36] The east coast is covered by a lush vegetation.[36] The west coast, with its large savannahs and plains suitable for farming, is a drier area. Many ore-rich massifs are found along this coast.[36]

The Diahot River is the longest river of New Caledonia, flowing for some 100 kilometres (62 mi).[37] It has a catchment area of 620 km2 (240 sq mi) and opens north-westward into the Baie d'Harcourt, flowing towards the northern point of the island along the western escarpment of the Mount Panié.[37][38] Most of the island is covered by wet evergreen forests, while savannahs dominate the lower elevations.[39] The New Caledonian lagoon, with a total area of 24,000 square kilometres (9,300 sq mi) is one of the largest lagoons in the world. It is surrounded by the New Caledonia Barrier Reef.[36]

The climate is tropical, with a hot and humid season from November to March with temperatures between 27 °C and 30 °C,[36] and a cooler, dry season from June to August with temperatures between 20 °C and 23 °C,[36] linked by two short interstices.[9] The tropical climate is strongly moderated by the oceanic influence and the trade winds that attenuate humidity, which can be close to 80%.[36] The average annual temperature is 23 °C, with historical extremes of 2.3 °C and 39.1 °C.[9]

The rainfall records show that precipitation differs greatly within the island. The 3,000 millimetres (120 in) of rainfall recorded in Galarino are three times the average of the west coast. There are also dry periods, because of the effects of El Niño.[9] Between December and April, tropical depressions and cyclones can cause winds to exceed a speed of 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph), with gusts of 250 kilometres per hour (160 mph) and very abundant rainfall.[9] The last cyclone affecting New Caledonia was Cyclone Cook, in January 2017.

New Caledonia has many unique taxa, especially birds and plants.[40] It has the richest diversity in the world per square kilometre.[40] In its botany not only species but entire genera and even families are unique to the island, and survive nowhere else. The biodiversity is caused by Grande Terre's central mountain range, which has created a variety of niches, landforms and micro-climates where endemic species thrive.[40]

Bruno Van Peteghem was in 2001 awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for his efforts on behalf of the Caledonian ecological protection movement in the face of "serious challenges" from Jacques Lafleur's RPCR party.[41] Progress has been made in a few areas in addressing the protection of New Caledonia's ecological diversity from fire, industrial and residential development, unrestricted agricultural activity and mining (such as the judicial revocation of INCO's mining license in June 2006 owing to claimed abuses).[42]

New Caledonia's fauna and flora derive from ancestral species isolated in the region when it broke away from Gondwana many tens of millions of years ago.[43] Not only endemic species have evolved here, but entire genera and even families are unique to the islands.

More of tropical gymnosperm species are endemic to New Caledonia than to any similar region on Earth. Of the 44 indigenous species of gymnosperms, 43 are endemic, including the only known parasitic gymnosperm (Parasitaxus usta).[44] Also, of the 35 known species of Araucaria, 13 are endemic to New Caledonia.[40] New Caledonia also has the world's most divergent lineage of flowering plant, Amborella trichopoda which is at, or near, the base of the clade of all flowering plants.

The world's largest extant species of fern, Cyathea intermedia, also is endemic to New Caledonia. It is very common on acid ground, and grows about one meter (yard) per year on the east coast, usually on fallow ground or in forest clearings. There also are other species of Cyathea, notably Cyathea novae-caledoniae.[45]

New Caledonia also is one of five regions on the planet where species of southern beeches (Nothofagus) are indigenous; five species are known to occur here.[44]

New Caledonia has its own version of maquis (maquis minier) occurring on metalliferous soils, mostly in the south.[39] The soils of ultramafic rocks (mining terrains) have been a refuge for many native flora species because they are toxic and their mineral content is poorly suited to most foreign species of plants.[44]

New Caledonia is home to the New Caledonian crow, a bird noted for its tool-making abilities, which rival those of primates.[46] These crows are renowned for their extraordinary intelligence and ability to fashion tools to solve problems, and make the most complex tools of any animal yet studied apart from humans.[47]

The endemic kagu,[48] agile and able to run quickly, is a flightless bird, but it is able to use its wings to climb branches or glide. It is the surviving member of monotypic family Rhynochetidae, order Gruiformes.[49]

There are 11 endemic fish species and 14 endemic species of decapod crustaceans in the rivers and lakes of New Caledonia. Some, such as Neogalaxias, exist only in small areas.[50] The nautilus, considered a living fossil and related to the ammonites which became extinct at the end of the Mesozoic era, occurs in Pacific waters around New Caledonia.[50] There is a large diversity of marine fish in the surrounding waters, which are within the extents of the Coral Sea.

Several species of New Caledonia are remarkable for their size: Ducula goliath is the largest extant species of pigeon; Rhacodactylus leachianus, the largest gecko in the world; Phoboscincus bocourti the largest skink in the world, thought to be extinct but rediscovered in 2003.[50]

At the last census in 2014 New Caledonia had a population of 268,767.[2] Of these, 17,436 live in the Loyalty Islands Province, 45,137 in the North Province, and 183,007 in the South Province.[4] Population growth has slowed down since the 1990s, but remains strong with a yearly increase of 1.7% between 1996 and 2009.[52]

Natural growth is responsible for 85% of the population growth, while the remaining 15% is attributable to net migration.[52] The population growth is strong in South Province (2.3% per year between 1996 and 2009), moderate in North Province (0.7%), but negative in the Loyalty Islands, which are losing inhabitants (âˆ’1.3%).[52]

Over 40% of the population is under 20,[4] although the ratio of older people on the total population is increasing.[52] Two residents of New Caledonia out of three live in Greater Nouméa.[52] Three out of four were born in New Caledonia.[52] The total fertility rate went from 3.2 children per woman in 1990 to 2.2 in 2007.[52]

At the 2014 census,[53] 39.1% of the population reported belonging to the Kanak community (down from 40.3% at the 2009 census[54]), 27.2% to the European (Caldoche and Zoreille) community (down from 29.2% at the 2009 census), and 8.7% declared their community as "Caledonian" and other (up from 6.0% at the 2009 census). Most of the people who self-identified as "Caledonian" are thought to be ethnically European.[55]

The other self-reported communities were Wallisians and Futunians (8.2% of the total population, down from 8.7% at the 2009 census), Tahitians (2.1% of the total population, up from 2.0% at the 2009 census), Indonesians (1.4% of the total population, down from 1.6% at the 2009 census), Ni-Vanuatu (1.0%, up from 0.9% at the 2009 census), Vietnamese (0.9%, down from 1.0% at the 2009 census), and other Asians (essentially ethnic Chinese) (0.4% of the total population, down from 0.8% at the 2009 census).

Finally 8.6% of the population reported belonging to multiple communities (mixed race) (up from 8.3% at the 2009 census), and 2.5% refused to report any community (up from 1.2% at the 2009 census). The question on community belonging, which had been left out of the 2004 census, was reintroduced in 2009 under a new formulation, different from the 1996 census, allowing multiple choices (mixed race) and the possibility to clarify the choice "other".[56]

The Kanak people, part of the Melanesian group, are indigenous to New Caledonia.[57] Their social organization is traditionally based around clans, which identify as either "land" or "sea" clans, depending on their original location and the occupation of their ancestors.[57] According to the 2009 census, the Kanak constitute 94% of the population in the Loyalty Islands Province, 74% in the North Province and 27% in the South Province.[57] The Kanak tend to be of lower socio-economic status than the Europeans and other settlers.[57]

Europeans first settled in New Caledonia when France established a penal colony on the archipelago.[57] Once the prisoners had completed their sentences, they were given land to settle.[57] According to the 2009 census, of the 71,721 Europeans in New Caledonia 32,354 were native-born, 33,551 were born in other parts of France, and 5,816 were born abroad.[58] The Europeans are divided into several groups: the Caldoches are usually defined as those born in New Caledonia who have ancestral ties that span back to the early French settlers.[55] They often settled in the rural areas of the western coast of Grande Terre, where many continue to run large cattle properties.[55]

Distinct from the Caldoches are those were born in New Caledonia from families that had settled more recently, and are called simply Caledonians.[8] The Metropolitan French-born migrants who come to New Caledonia are called MÃ©tros or Zoreilles, indicating their origins in metropolitan France.[8] There is also a community of about 2,000[8] pieds noirs, descended from European settlers in France's former North African colonies;[59] some of them are prominent in anti-independence politics, including Pierre Maresca, a leader of the RPCR.[60]

A 2015 documentary by Al Jazeera English asserted that up to 10%[dubious – discuss] of New Caledonia's population is descended from around 2,000 Arab-Berber people deported from French Algeria in the late 19th century to prisons on the island in reprisal for the Mokrani Revolt in 1871. After serving their sentences, they were released and given land to own and cultivate as part of colonisation efforts on the island. As the overwhelming majority of the Algerians imprisoned on New Caledonia were men, the community was continued through intermarriage with women of other ethnic groups, mainly French women from nearby women's prisons. Despite facing both assimilation into the Euro-French population and discrimination for their ethnic background, descendants of the deportees have succeeded in preserving a common identity as Algerians, including maintaining certain cultural practices (such as Arabic names) and Islamic religion. They commonly travel to Algeria as a rite of passage, though obtaining Algerian citizenship is often a difficult process. The largest population of Algerian-Caledonians lives in the commune of Bourail (particularly in the Nessadiou district, where there is an Islamic cultural centre and cemetery), with smaller communities in Nouméa, Conné, Blambut, and Surianté.[61]

The French language began to spread with the establishment of French settlements, and French is now spoken even in the most secluded villages. The level of fluency, however, varies significantly across the population as a whole, primarily due to the absence of universal access to public education before 1953, but also due to immigration and ethnic diversity.[62] At the 2009 census, 97.3% of people aged 15 or older reported that they could speak, read and write French, whereas only 1.1% reported that they had no knowledge of French.[63] Other significant language communities among immigrant populations are those of Wallisian and Javanese language speakers.

The 28 Kanak languages spoken in New Caledonia are part of the Oceanic group of the Austronesian family.[64] Kanak languages are taught from kindergarten (four languages are taught up to the bachelor's degree) and an academy is responsible for their promotion.[65] The four most widely spoken indigenous languages are Drehu (spoken in Lifou), Nengone (spoken on Maré) and Paicî (northern part of Grande Terre).[65] Others include Iaai (spoken on Ouvéa). At the 2009 census, 35.8% of people aged 15 or older reported that they could speak (but not necessarily read or write) one of the indigenous Melanesian languages, whereas 58.7% reported that they had no knowledge of any of them.[63]

The predominant religion is Christianity; half of the population is Roman Catholic, including most of the Europeans, Uveans, and Vietnamese and half of the Melanesian and Polynesian minorities.[20] Roman Catholicism was introduced by French colonists. The island also has numerous Protestant churches, of which the Free Evangelical Church and the Evangelical Church in New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands have the largest number of adherents; their memberships are almost entirely Melanesian.[20] Protestantism gained ground in the late 20th century and continues to expand. There are also numerous other Christian groups and small numbers of Muslims.[20] See Islam in New Caledonia and Bahá'í Faith in New Caledonia.[citation needed]

New Caledonia has one of the largest economies in the South Pacific, with a GDP of US$9.89 billion in 2011.[3] The nominal GDP per capita was US$38,921 (at market exchange rates) in 2011.[3] It is higher than New Zealand's, though there is significant inequality in income distribution,[68] and long-standing structural imbalances between the economically dominant South Province and the less developed North Province and Loyalty Islands.[22] The currency in use in New Caledonia is the CFP franc, pegged to the euro at a rate of 1,000 CFP to 8.38 euros. It is issued by the Institut d'Emission d'Outre-Mer.[69]

Real GDP grew by 3.8% in 2010 and 3.2% in 2011, boosted by rising worldwide nickel prices and an increase in domestic demand due to rising employment, as well as strong business investments.[3] In 2011, exports of goods and services from New Caledonia amounted to 2.11 billion US dollars, 75.6% of which were mineral products and alloys (mainly nickel ore and ferronickel).[3] Imports of goods and services amounted to 5.22 billion US dollars.[3] 22.1% of the imports of goods came from Metropolitan France and its overseas departments, 16.1% from other countries in the European Union, 14.6% from Singapore (essentially fuel), 9.6% from Australia, 4.5% from the United States, 4.2% from New Zealand, 2.0% from Japan, and 27.0% from other countries.[70] The trade deficit in goods and services stood at 3.11 billion US dollars in 2011.[3]

Financial support from France is substantial, representing more than 15% of the GDP, and contributes to the health of the economy.[71] Tourism is underdeveloped, with 100,000 visitors a year, compared to 400,000 in the Cook Islands and 200,000 in Vanuatu.[33] Much of the land is unsuitable for agriculture, and food accounts for about 20% of imports.[71] According to FAOSTAT, New Caledonia is one of world's largest producers of: yams (33rd); taro (44th); plantains (50th); coconuts (52nd).[72] The exclusive economic zone of New Caledonia covers 1.4 million square kilometres (0.54 million square miles).[5] The construction sector accounts for roughly 12% of GDP, employing 9.9% of the salaried population in 2010.[68] Manufacturing is largely confined to small-scale activities such as the transformation of foodstuffs, textiles and plastics.[68]

New Caledonian soils contain about 25% of the world's nickel resources.[73] The late-2000s recession has gravely affected the nickel industry, as the sector faced a significant drop in nickel prices (âˆ’31.0% year-on-year in 2009) for the second consecutive year.[74] The fall in prices has led a number of producers to reduce or stop altogether their activity, resulting in a reduction of the global supply of nickel by 6% compared to 2008.[74]

This context, combined with bad weather has forced the operators in the sector to revise downwards their production target.[74] Thus, the activity of mineral extraction has declined by 8% in volume year on year.[74] The share of the nickel sector as a percentage of GDP fell 3%, to 5% in 2009 compared with 8% in 2008.[74] A trend reversal and a recovery in demand, have been recorded early in the second half of 2009, allowing a 2.0% increase in the local metal production.[74]

Historically, nickel was transported by wire ropeway to ships waiting off shore.

Wood carving, especially of the houp (Montrouziera cauliflora), is a contemporary reflection of the beliefs of the traditional tribal society, and includes totems, masks, chambranles, or flèche faîtière,[75] a kind of arrow which adorns the roofs of Kanak houses. Basketry is a craft widely practiced by tribal women, creating objects of daily use.[75]

The Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano and opened in 1998, is the icon of the Kanak culture.[75]

The Kaneka is a form of local music, inspired by reggae and originating in the 1980s.[75]

The Mwâ Ka is a 12m totem pole commemorating the French annexation of New Caledonia, and was inaugurated in 2005.[76]

Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes[77] is the only daily newspaper in the archipelago.[78][79] A monthly publication, Le Chien bleu, parodies the news from New Caledonia.[80]

There are five radio stations: the public service broadcaster RFO radio Nouvelle-Calédonie, Océane FM (the collectivity's newest station), the youth-oriented station NRJ, Radio Djiido (established by Jean-Marie Tjibaou), and Radio Rythmes Bleus.[79] The last two stations are primarily targeted to the various Kanak groups who are indigenous to New Caledonia ("Djiido" is a term from the Fwâi language, spoken in Hienghène in the North Province, denoting a metal spike used to secure straw thatching to the roof of a traditional Kanak house).

As for television, the public service broadcaster France Télévision operates a local channel, Réseau Outre-Mer 1re, along with France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5, France Ô, France 24 and Arte.[81] Canal Plus Calédonie carries 17 digital channels in French, including Canal+ and TF1.[82] Analogue television broadcasts ended in September 2011, completing the digital television transition in New Caledonia.[83] Bids for two new local television stations, NCTV and NC9, were considered by the French broadcasting authorities.[84] NCTV was launched in December 2013.[85]

The media are considered to be able to operate freely, but Reporters Without Borders raised concerns in 2006 about "threats and intimidation" of RFO staff by members of a pro-independence group.[86]

The largest sporting event to be held in New Caledonia is a round of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC).

The New Caledonia football team began playing in 1950, and was admitted into FIFA, the international association of football leagues, in 2004.[87] Prior to joining FIFA, New Caledonia held observer status with the Oceania Football Confederation, and became an official member of the OFC with its FIFA membership. They have won the South Pacific Games five times, most recently in 2007, and have placed third on two occasions in the OFC Nations Cup. Christian Karembeu is a prominent New Caledonian former footballer. The under-17 team is currently a part of the FIFA under 17 world cup (2017).

Horse racing is also very popular in New Caledonia, as are women's cricket matches.[88]

The Rugby league team participated in the Pacific Cup in 2004.

New Caledonia also has a national synchronised swimming team which tours abroad.

The "Tour Cycliste de Nouvelle Caledonie" is a multi-day cycling stage race that is held usually in October. The race is organised by the Comite Cycliste New Caledonia. The race attracts riders from Australia, New Zealand, France, Reunion, Europe and Tahiti. Australian Brendan Washington has finished last three times in the race between 2005â€“2009, and is known in New Caledonia as "The Lanterne Rouge".

The New Caledonia Handball team won the Oceania Handball Nations Cup in 2008 held in Wellington, New Zealand. They beat Australia in the final.

Due to low levels of domestic horticulture, fresh tropical fruits feature less highly in New Caledonian cuisine than in other Pacific nations, instead relying on rice, fish and root vegetables such as taro.[89] One way this is frequently prepared is in a buried-oven-style feast, known as Bougna. Wrapped in banana leaves, the fish, taro, banana and other seafood are buried with hot rocks to cook, then dug up and eaten.

Tontouta International Airport is 50 km (31 mi) north of Nouméa, and connects New Caledonia with the airports of Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Osaka, Papeete, Fiji, Wallis, Port Vila, Seoul, and St. Denis.[90] Most internal air services are operated by the International carrier Aircalin.[91] Cruise ships dock at the Gare Maritime in Nouméa.[92] The passenger and cargo boat Havannah sails to Port Vila, Malicolo and Santo in Vanuatu once a month.[92]

New Caledonia's road network consists of:

The television series McHale's Navy was set in the islands in the area, with fleet headquarters being in New Caledonia, and so were the episodes "New Blood" and "Cruel Sea" of the 1999 BBC television show Walking with Dinosaurs.

Rebellion (French: L'Ordre et la Morale) was released in 2011 and is based on the massacre by French military during the 1988 Ouvéa cave hostage taking in New Caledonia as seen from the perspective of then GIGN leader Capt. Philippe Legorjus.

In 2009, South Korean television drama Boys Over Flowers filmed Episode 5 and Episode 6 at New Caledonia as a vacation spot for the richest of South Korea. With 10 million viewers, New Caledonia and the sights filmed in the show have led to increase interest in the Korean population who see it as a possible honeymoon location.