U2 to start world tour in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina in spring 2027

U2 have announced their return to stadiums. The band’s world tour will kick off in Mexico City on February 23rd, 2027, with further shows in São Paulo and Buenos Aires. Dates for Europe and North America will be announced in the coming weeks as the band gear up for the release of their first album in nine years, Carnaval De Luz, on November 13th.The band, who recently played from the balcony of Bewley’s Cafe on Grafton Street to celebrate 50 years together, will be supported by Beck for the dates in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.Tickets for the tour, titled Carnaval De Luz presents: The Greatest Show on Earth, will be available first on U2.com. A subscriber presale will open on Monday, October 19th, at 10am local time. Remaining tickets will be available on U2.com from Thursday, October 22nd, at 10am local time.READ MOREThe tour marks U2’s first return to a stadium setting since they concluded The Joshua Tree Tour in 2019. They last played Croke Park in Dublin in 2017, and Dublin’s 3Arena in 2018. The Greatest Show on Earth tour will feature a set list drawn from the band’s 50 years in existence, meaning fans can expect to enjoy classics such as With Or Without You and One alongside material from their forthcoming album. Carnaval De Luz is U2’s 16th studio album and the band have said it will offer a more back-to-basics approach after a few years where mixes for previous albums ping-ponged between numerous producers. Helmed by Jacknife Lee, the record features Torn, a duet between Bono and the late Dolly Parton. The album also has a song, The Mirror Maker (Rosalía), dedicated to Grammy award-winning Spanish singer Rosalía.Fellow Irish band Fontaines DC also have a duet with Rosalía on their new album, Dopamine Chamber, which drops on Friday. Their duet, Where is Gone?, has the same regal languorousness as the 1967 single Some Velvet Morning from Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra. [ U2’s new album Carnaval de Luz features Dolly Parton and Bono duetOpens in new window ]U2’s new single, their third from the record, is the song from which the tour plucks its name: The Greatest Show on Earth. Co-written by U2 and Brian Eno, it’s a sombre, reflective tale of lovers fighting to keep faith in one another. “We were once the greatest show on earth,” Bono sings, over elegiac, juddering guitars from The Edge. U2 will kick off their world tour in February next year. Photograph: Michael Schwartz In recent years, Drummer Larry Mullen jnr was forced to sit out the band’s Sphere shows in Las Vegas due to a neck injury that almost forced his retirement. After surgery in Dublin, the recovery process meant relearning his drumming technique, a daunting process which took many months. He told Rolling Stone Magazine he will assess his fitness level on tour night by night. “Even if I can’t play for two-and-a-half hours, if I can play for an hour, that’s enough,” he said. “I’ve had it so good that I’ll accept that.”Mullen discussed the gratitude he has for his career in a recent podcast series by The Irish Times, Drummer Seeks Musicians, about the origins of the band, back when Mullen placed a note on his school noticeboard at Mount Temple Comprehensive in Dublin to recruit members. “My parents moved the kitchen table out of the kitchen into the back garden and they facilitated this mad idea with these people showing up in a kitchen in suburban Dublin and playing instruments at high volume,” he told Róisín Ingle. “That they allowed that is the thing that is most striking to me.”Drummer Seeks Musicians, part one: The Note