U2 Carnaval de Luz Announced, Out Nov 13 With Dolly Parton Finale

U2 will release their first full-length album of new material in nine years this November. U2 Carnaval de Luz, the 12-track album, arrives November 13 via Interscope Records, and its closing track is a duet with Dolly Parton that has become her final recorded vocal performance. According to the Associated Press, a representative for Parton confirmed the song, called "Torn," is the last vocal she ever put to tape.

The announcement of U2 Carnaval de Luz, made September 24, ends the longest gap between U2 albums since they became a band. Their 16th studio record follows 2017's Songs of Experience, though the group has not exactly been quiet. They released two six-song EPs this year, Days of Ash in February and Easter Lily in April, timed to the Christian liturgical calendar. In a statement announcing the new album, Bono framed the record as the celebratory close of that cycle, writing: "There will be loud guitars, deep bass, some ecstatic rhythms, and, yes, some silver tears will make an appearance."

The guitarist The Edge had his own summary. "It's a messy, provocative, sacred collection of songs," he said in a statement. The title translates from Spanish and Portuguese to "Carnival of Light," and U2 Carnaval de Luz was produced by Jacknife Lee, who has worked with the band since 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. The announcement came with a new single, "Silencio," while "Street of Dreams" had already surfaced in July as the record's first offering.

The final recording of Dolly Parton

The closing track of U2 Carnaval de Luz will draw the most attention. "Torn" is a duet between Bono and Parton, co-written by the two along with Snow Patrol's Johnny McDaid, and press materials describe it as "a tender country song detailing broken family ties that holds wider resonances." Parton died in August 2026 after a private battle with cancer, and the album's closing song turned out to be the last vocal she ever recorded.

The collaboration came together quickly in the summer. Bono told Rolling Stone he had originally discussed a separate folk-inspired project with Parton, but she waved that off and offered him a song she had written herself. "She said: 'That's a little too Irish for me.' But then she said: 'I've got this song called Torn. Maybe you can take it somewhere else?'" reported Bono. She recorded her vocal in June, getting out of bed to do it, and he still cannot listen to the result. "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 said.

Producer Jacknife Lee said the team played Parton the final mix before her death and she approved it. He recalled she was thrilled with how the track turned out, that she loved it and was proud of her vocal. Bono added that he could hardly believe the U2 Carnaval de Luz performance came from an 80-year-old woman, calling the time they spent together in her final months "very moving."

A 50th anniversary and one persistent rumor

U2 Carnaval de Luz arrives as the band marks 50 years as a band, a run that started when drummer Larry Mullen Jr. pinned a handwritten note reading "Drummer Seeks Musicians To Form Band" to the noticeboard at Dublin's Mount Temple Comprehensive School, as reported by JamBase. The album cover nods to another half-century-old landmark: the four members walking in a line along a beach, Bono leading in a top hat and black coat, in a clear echo of the Beatles' Abbey Road sleeve.

The tracklist also set off one rumor the band has already shut down. The fourth song, "The Mirror Maker (Rosalía)," led fans and some outlets to assume the Spanish superstar was a secret guest on the album. A source confirmed to Consequence that she is not on U2 Carnaval de Luz at all. Rosalía inspired the song, but she is not featured on it. The actual guest appearances are subtler: longtime collaborators Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois are involved, and the closing track belongs to Parton.

U2 Carnaval de Luz lands November 13, the band's 50th anniversary year, and it closes with the last vocal Dolly Parton ever recorded.

The U2 Carnaval de Luz announcement caps a crowded release week. Also out Friday were Taylor Swift's expanded "Showgirl: The Encore" and Leon Bridges' "Happiness Anytime".

Reporting on the announcement included Consequence, which confirmed Rosalía inspired but does not appear on "The Mirror Maker."