"Beautiful Day" is a song by the Irish rock band U2. It is the first track from their 2000 album, All That You Can't Leave Behind, and it was released as the album's lead single. It was a commercial success, helping launch the album to multi-platinum status, and is one of U2's biggest hits to date. Like many tracks from All That You Can't Leave Behind, "Beautiful Day" harkens back to the group's past sound. The tone of the Edge's guitar was a subject of debate amongst the band members, as they disagreed on whether he should use a sound similar to that from their early career in the 1980s. Lead singer Bono explained that the upbeat track is about losing everything but still finding joy in what one has.

The song received positive reviews, and it became their fourth number-one single in the UK and their first number-one in the Netherlands. The song peaked at number 21 in the United States, the band's highest position since "Discothèque" in 1997. In 2001, the song won three Grammy Awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The group has played "Beautiful Day" at every one of their concerts since the song's 2001 live debut on the Elevation Tour.

Leon James "Lee" DeWyze, Jr. (born April 2, 1986) is an American singer-songwriter from Mount Prospect, Illinois, and the winner of the ninth season of American Idol. Prior to Idol, DeWyze had a solo career and formed the Lee DeWyze Band. He had also released two independent albums called So I'm Told in 2007 and Slumberland in 2010, both on WuLi Records. His first post-Idol album Live It Up was released on November 16, 2010, through RCA Records. WuLi Records, citing demand from DeWyze's fan base, released a third album of pre-Idol recordings, What Once Was, on February 14, 2012. His fifth studio album Frames was released on August 20, 2013, and his sixth album Oil & Water was released on February 12, 2016.

Background

DeWyze was born in Mount Prospect, Illinois, the eldest son of Kathleen (née Donahue) and Leon (Lee) DeWyze, Sr., who worked as a postal carrier in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. He has two older sisters, Shannon and Sarah, and a younger brother, Michael. His musical influences include Cat Stevens, Eric Clapton, Ben Harper, and Simon & Garfunkel.

"Beautiful Day" was the first single from 3 Colours Red's second album, Revolt. It was released on Creation Records in 1999.

The song was written by frontman/bassist Pete Vuckovic and recorded at Westside Studios in London. It surprised many, showing a more sensitive and epic side to the band's previously punk/pop-dominated sound (although their debut album featured 'Fit Boy and Faint Girl' and 'Copper Girl' which were both in a similar vein). It went on to become the band's biggest commercial hit, reaching number 11 in the UK charts in January 1999, throwing them further into the media spotlight at a time when the talk surrounding the band was of them being dropped. It also paved the way for the band's American campaign where the song received considerable radio airplay, even entering the charts. The band toured the US with Silverchair, and Vuckovic subsequently did an acoustic promotional tour of radio stations on the back of the song's success.

It was later perhaps incorrectly and naively blamed for splitting the band up, having allegedly distanced Vuckovic from his bandmates and fuelled a creative power struggle between him and his co-writer, Chris McCormack. However, the band reformed three years later and went on to play the song at every gig. The video for the song can be found on youtube.com where it has currently enjoyed 6 times as many 'hits' as anything else the band recorded or released, and played a massive part in procuring the band the opening slot at Wembley Stadium in 1999 (opening for Aerosmith).