The second annual RTÉ Choice Music Prize Classic Irish Album award has been bestowed upon U2’s seminal 90’s outing ‘Achtung Baby’. The announcement was made by Will Leahy this morning on RTÉ Gold.

The 1991 album which many people consider to be U2’s crowning musical achievement features the perineal hit One, Even Better Than The Real Thing, Mysterious Ways and The Fly. Bono has previously described Achtung Baby as “the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree” and rarely has a chainsaw sounded so sweet.

A statement from the judging panel on the selection of ‘Achtung Baby’ reads: “The panel is unanimous that you cannot deny the album’s authenticity and significant cultural impact as one classic song after another unfolds over 55 minutes. To this day, it still resonates as a collection of songs that capture the spirit of change at both a personal as well as a societal level, when the Berlin wall came tumbling down, and Ireland sensed a change in the air. The ground-breaking Zoo TV Tour in support of the album helped to re-invent the stadium show and now over 30 years later, Achtung Baby is at the heart of the globally acclaimed ‘U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere’, a string of ground-breaking performances which launched Sphere, the cutting-edge new venue in Las Vegas”.

‘Achtung Baby’ joins the late great Sinead O’Connor’s ‘I Do Not Have What I Haven’t Got’ which won the inaugural award last year.

The judges for the prize are Sinead Crowley (Coimisiún na Meán), Michael Kealy (RTÉ TV), Maeve Quigley (Irish Daily Mail) and Will Leahy (RTÉ Gold) with Paul Russell (2FM) as the chairperson.

The Choice Music Prize proper takes place on Thursday March 7th in Vicar Street with performances from John Francis Flynn, Kojaque, Lankum, Rachael Lavelle, The Murder Capital, Soda Blonde, Ezra Williams. The event is sold out but you can listen to it live on 2FM from 7PM

Read our retrospective on U2’s Achtung Baby by licking on the image below.