U2 announces 16th studio album Carnaval De Luz featuring Dolly Parton's final vocal performance

Return to the studio

U2 announced their sixteenth studio album, titled Carnaval De Luz, scheduled for release on 13 November 2026 through Island Records and EMI Records. The announcement falls during the 50th anniversary of the band, tracing back to September 1976 when drummer Larry Mullen Jr. posted a notice seeking musicians on a bulletin board at Dublin's Mount Temple Comprehensive School. The 12-track project is the group's first full collection of new material since their 2017 record Songs of Experience. Along with the album announcement on 24 September 2026, the band issued the single "Silencio", which follows the July release of advance track "Street of Dreams".

Creative direction and production

Jacknife Lee produced the record across multiple recording locations, combining experimental textures with traditional song structures. The tracklist includes contributions from synthesist Brian Eno across three songs, Dutch producer Martin Garrix on "Glorify", and Daniel Lanois playing pedal steel on the closing track. Musician Ryan Tedder contributed additional production to "Silencio", while Spanish singer Rosalía features on the fourth track, "The Mirror Maker". In a public statement regarding the sound and mood of the new collection, lead singer Bono explained the thematic energy driving the songs.

There will be loud guitars, deep bass, some ecstatic rhythms and, yes, some silver tears will make an appearance! 'Cause 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.

Dolly Parton duet and liturgical themes

The closing track, "Torn", is a country duet between Bono and the late Dolly Parton, who co-wrote the piece alongside U2 and Johnny McDaid. Bono originally approached Parton to collaborate on an Irish folk side project, but she instead proposed working on "Torn", a song addressing fractured family ties. Parton recorded her vocal track while ill, making the appearance her final studio recording before her death. The Edge described the album as a chaotic, provocative, and sacred collection, noting that the group incorporated flatwound strings on recordings for the first time.

She said, 'I got this song. It's called 'Torn,' and do you wanna see where you can take it somewhere else, maybe?' 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.

The 2026 release cycle

Carnaval De Luz connects directly to two surprise six-track EPs released earlier in 2026, Days of Ash in February and Easter Lily in April. Those projects followed the liturgical calendar through themes of reflection and rebirth. Carnaval De Luz represents the carnival season preceding Lent, bringing the total number of original songs released by U2 in 2026 to 24 tracks. Accompanying single "Silencio" runs for two minutes and thirty-five seconds in a surf-punk style, with a music video directed by Mexican-American directing duo Cliqua, filmed in a dance hall in Mexico City.