Holiday

To understand the raw energy of Holiday, one must know that it was born out of Billie Joe Armstrong's need to express a deep frustration. He took two months to polish the lyrics, feeling they didn't achieve the strength he was looking for. With the encouragement of Rob Cavallo, he managed to convey a powerful message, inspired by the music of Bob Dylan and with the intention of being more direct than in American Idiot. The song targets conservative stances in the United States, criticizing how certain politicians seemed to divide people to gain votes. Armstrong himself described it as a direct "fuck you" to then-president George W. Bush. In the bridge, he imagined a phrase that would resonate with the audience, "Can I get another Amen?", and created a section he himself defined as "a politician's worst nightmare." The chorus, "This is our lives on holiday," sought to reflect the general apathy towards the problems of the moment, and Armstrong clarified that it was not an anti-American stance, but anti-war.

Recorded as part of Green Day's seventh studio album, American Idiot, Holiday was released as the third single on March 14, 2005, also serving as an introduction to Boulevard of Broken Dreams. The song was well-received globally, reaching number 19 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and topping the Hot Modern Rock Tracks and Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks charts. It also ranked among the top twenty in Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, and Norway. The music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, shows the band having fun in Las Vegas and then in a bar, where each member plays multiple characters. For the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards ceremony, they arrived in the same car from the video, modified by James Washburn. The song has been a recurring part of their tours, with its lyrics adapted to protest against Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016 and as part of the Hella Mega Tour in 2021.