"Holiday" is a protest song by American rock band Green Day. It was released as the third single from the group's seventh studio album American Idiot, and is also the third track. The song is in the key of F minor. Though the song is a prelude to "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Holiday" was released as a single later on, on March 14, 2005. The song achieved considerable popularity across the world and performed moderately well on the charts. In the US, it reached number 19 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks and Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks charts. It debuted at number 11 in the United Kingdom and reached the top 20 in Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, and Norway. Background One of two explicitly political songs on the album (the other being fellow single "American Idiot"), "Holiday" took two months to finish writing, because Armstrong continually felt his lyrics were not good enough. Aided by the encouragement of Cavallo, he completed the song. "Holiday" was inspired by the music of Bob Dylan. Armstrong wanted to write something stronger than "American Idiot", with harsh language to illustrate his points. The song takes aim at American conservatism. Armstrong felt that Republican politicians were "strategic" in alienating one group of people—for example, the gay community—in order to buy the votes of another. He later characterized the song as an outspoken "fuck you" to then-President George W. Bush. Armstrong for the first time imagined how he would perform the songs he was writing, and envisioned an audience responding to his lyric "Can I get another Amen?" The song's bridge, which Armstrong hoped to be as "twisted as possible," was designed as a "politician's worst nightmare." The chorus's refrain—"This is our lives on holiday"—was intended to reflect the average American's apathy on the issues of the day. Armstrong characterized the song as "not anti-American, it’s anti-war." Live performances In live performances, video screens would display footage of helicopters dropping bombs. In New Jersey, at the Revolution Radio Tour, the lyrics "Pulverize the Eiffel Towers" were changed to "Pulverize the Donald Trump Towers". Depending on the location of the performance, the lyric "the representative from California now has the floor" will be changed to reference the country or state where the song is being performed (e.g. "the representative from United Kingdom now has the floor"). Music