U2 has officially announced that their new album, Carnaval De Luz, will be released on November 13, 2026. It’s the band’s first release since 2023’s Songs Of Surrender, an album that featured all re-recorded material. If we don’t count that, it’s the band’s first major release of the decade. It’s their first album of new material since Songs Of Experience in 2017. Overall, this will be the band’s 16th studio release.
On July 7, 2026, U2 released their lead single, “Street Of Dreams”, with a music video shot in Mexico City. During filming, the band was performing on top of a bus when a storm blew in. A local family offered their balcony so the band could finish filming, saving the day. The song was heavily associated with the Street Child World Cup during the summer of 2026. U2 released their second single, “Silencio”, on September 24, the same day as the official album announcement. Fans have noted that the album marks the band’s sound returning to their Joshua Tree era, a move that’s massively appealing to die-hard fans.
Though the album announcement has been anticipated since the release of “Street Of Dreams”, fans didn’t expect to learn that a duet with Dolly Parton closes out the album. The beloved country singer, who passed away on August 25, 2026, is featured in a duet called “Torn”. The band revealed this in a statement, along with an interview with Rolling Stone.
Dolly’s Last Recorded Vocal Performance
The closing track, “Torn”, was co-written by U2, Dolly Parton, and Johnny McDaid. It was described in a release statement as “what has sadly turned out to be her last recorded vocal performance, a tender country song detailing broken family ties that holds wider resonances.”
“When she got ill,” Bono told Rolling Stone in an interview, “she got out of her bed to sing this song. And you can hear that. And I can’t even listen to it now.” Parton brought the song to the band, with Bono and McDaid rewriting some of the lyrics. After Parton approved the new lyrics, she recorded her parts, and Bono said, “She sang her heart out, and I cannot believe that’s an 80-year-old woman.”
Dolly approved her parts, as confirmed by the album’s producer, Garret “Jacknife” Lee. “Dolly loved it. She was so proud of her vocals 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.”
Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images for U2
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