U2 Announce ‘Carnaval De Luz,’ Featuring Dolly Parton’s Final Vocal on Closer ‘Torn’

U2 revealed their sixteenth studio album, “Carnaval De Luz,” on September 24, 2026, marking the band’s first set of new original material in nine years. Most outlets list the release date as November 13, 2026 via Interscope Records, though Variety cited Interscope in reporting a November 12, 2026 date. The album’s final track, “Torn,” is a duet between Bono and Dolly Parton that is being described as the last vocal performance Parton recorded before her death in August 2026 at age 80, following what her representatives called a brief battle with cancer.

• “Carnaval De Luz” is a 12-song collection produced by Garret “Jacknife” Lee.
• The album arrives around the 50th anniversary of U2’s formation, traced to a September 1976 note Larry Mullen Jr. posted at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin asking for bandmates.
• Lead single “Silencio” was released alongside the announcement, with a music video filmed in Mexico City by directing duo Cliqua, made up of Pasqual Gutiérrez and Raúl “RJ” Sanchez.
• Guest contributions on the record include Brian Eno co-writing and adding synths to “Go (Carnaval De Luz),” Martin Garrix on “Glorify,” Daniel Lanois on “Torn,” and additional production work from Ryan Tedder.

How Dolly Parton’s Duet With Bono on ‘Torn’ Came Together

Bono has said the pairing grew out of an entirely different project: an Irish-folk-leaning side venture for which he played Parton some early sketches over the phone. Parton turned that material down, telling him, in his recollection, “That’s a little too Irish for me.” She then offered up a song of her own called “Torn” and suggested Bono and Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid take it in a new direction.

Bono and McDaid reworked the lyrics into a story about a mother watching her family come apart, and Parton agreed to record that version. She is credited as a co-writer of “Torn” alongside U2 and McDaid. A press release for the album calls the song “a tender country song detailing broken family ties, that holds wider resonances.”

Parton laid down her vocal in June 2026, while she was already unwell. Bono told Rolling Stone: “When she got ill, she got out of her bed to sing this song. And you can hear that. And I can’t even listen to it now.” He also said of her performance, “She sang her heart out, and I cannot believe that’s an 80-year-old woman.”

Daniel Lanois, who has recorded with Neil Young, Peter Gabriel and Willie Nelson in addition to his long history with U2, plays pedal steel guitar on the track. Larry Mullen Jr. contributed a drum part he modeled on Bob Dylan’s “Most of the Time,” a song Lanois previously produced.

Producer Garret “Jacknife” Lee said Parton heard and signed off on the completed mix before she died. “Dolly loved it,” Lee said. “She was so proud of her vocal and the recording. She was thrilled with it. We were very nervous that she might not approve, or would be uncomfortable with it, but she loved it.” Reflecting on Parton’s death, Bono said, “It’s very moving to have had these intimacies with such a figure. The fact that they’re not there now, in any way you can call back, other than through her songs, is very sobering.”

What Bono and The Edge Have Said About ‘Carnaval De Luz’

Bono described the album in characteristically theatrical terms: “Roll up, roll up, roll up! Bring your purple socks, your broken hearts, your rose-tinted naivety… oh be amazed in the hall of mirrors. There will be loud guitars, deep bass, some ecstatic rhythms and, yes, some silver tears will make an appearance!” He added, “Because in the near distance just outside our carnival of light there are all kinds of creatures… the same imagination that brings us our creativity can also bring us monsters. So we make the drums louder. We build a bigger fire. We make our stories wilder and funnier. We make the melodies sweeter and the songs, they better shine, because if the world is in darkness we better not be.”

The Edge offered his own summary of the record: “It’s a messy, provocative, sacred collection of songs, and features the first-ever use of flat-wound strings on a U2 recording. Just saying.”

U2 ‘Carnaval De Luz’ Track List

1. “Go (Carnaval De Luz)”
2. “La Reina”
3. “Street Of Dreams”
4. “The Mirror Maker (Rosalía)”
5. “Superficiality”
6. “If The World Is At War We Better Not Be”
7. “Silencio”
8. “The Greatest Show On Earth”
9. “Glorify”
10. “Midnight Sunshine”
11. “Can’t Stop Us Now”
12. “Torn (Feat. Dolly Parton)”

More Info

• Inside Dolly Parton’s Final Recording — A Duet With Bono on the New U2 Album | Rolling Stone
• Dolly Parton got out of bed to record her final song with U2. Says Bono, “I can’t even listen to it now” | Guitar Player
• Bono Says Dolly Parton ‘Got Out of Her Bed’ to Make Final Vocal Recording for U2 Album | people.com
• U2’s new album to feature duet between Bono and Dolly Parton | independent.ie
• Dolly Parton’s secret duet with Bono to appear on U2 album after her death | mirror.co.uk
• U2 announce long-awaited new album ‘Carnaval De Luz’ and share charismatic single ‘Silencio’ | NME
• U2s First Album in Nine Years, ‘Carnaval De Luz, Will Feature a Dolly Parton Duet With Bono, Said to Be Her Last Recorded Vocal | Variety Music
• U2 reveals new album with Dolly Parton’s final vocal duet | freep.com