U2 Release 'Carnaval de luz' Album, Featuring Dolly Parton's Final Recording

U2 released their new album Carnaval de luz on Friday, June 13, through Island Records. The record marks 50 years of activity for the Irish band and follows two EPs issued earlier in 2026, Days of Ash and Easter Lily.

The album runs 46 minutes and 42 seconds. The standard edition carries 12 tracks, while the digital version adds a 13th, the bonus song "Get Back to Now." Among the compositions are "Street of Dreams," "Silencio," "The Greatest Show on Earth" and "Torn."

Why is "Torn" the track everyone will talk about?

"Torn" features Dolly Parton. According to the announcement, it was the last recording the country singer-songwriter made before her death in August.

That detail alone makes the song a piece of music history: the final studio contribution of one of American country's defining voices, captured on a U2 record five decades into the band's career.

Who produced it — and where does the title come from?

Jacknife Lee produced the album. He worked with contributions from Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Ryan Tedder and Steve Lillywhite — a roster that reads like a compressed history of U2's studio partnerships (Eno and Lanois shaped The Joshua Tree era; Lillywhite mixed the band's early records).

The title has a Brazilian origin. Bono and The Edge drew it from experiences at a carnival in Bahia in 2006, during a meeting with Quincy Jones and Gilberto Gil. Carnaval de luz translates as "Carnival of Light," though the band has kept the Portuguese spelling.

What does this change for fans in Brazil?

Plenty. The album's release precedes The Greatest Show on Earth World Tour, scheduled for 2027. The band plays São Paulo's Morumbi stadium on March 10, 12, 14 and 16 of that year — four dates in a single city, which signals how Brazil now sits at the center of U2's touring map rather than its edge.

The timing is deliberate: album out in mid-2026, arena-sized demand converted into stadium dates seven to nine months later.

How the record fits the anniversary arc

Here is the shape of U2's 50th-anniversary output so far:

• Days of Ash — EP, released 2026
• Easter Lily — EP, released 2026
• Carnaval de luz — full album, out June 13 via Island Records
• The Greatest Show on Earth World Tour — 2027, with four São Paulo dates confirmed

That's two EPs, one album and a world tour inside roughly two years — a dense schedule for a band marking its half-century.

The Parton collaboration gives Carnaval de luz its emotional anchor, and the Bahia-rooted title its narrative one. Now the question the tour dates answer in advance: demand for U2 in 2027 will be measured in stadium-size multiples, starting with four nights at the Morumbi.