U2 have announced their return to the road in 2027 with“Carnaval De Luz presents: The Greatest Show On Earth World Tour”, their first stadium tour since the final shows of The Joshua Tree Tour in 2019.

The tour will open on February 23, 2027 at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City, with a second show in the Mexican capital on February 26. The first run of dates will then take U2 to São Paulo and Buenos Aires, with two concerts scheduled in each city. Beck will be the support act for all six currently announced shows.

U2 2027 tour dates announced so far

• February 23, 2027 – Mexico City, Mexico – Estadio GNP Seguros
• February 26, 2027 – Mexico City, Mexico – Estadio GNP Seguros
• March 10, 2027 – São Paulo, Brazil – Estádio MorumBIS
• March 12, 2027 – São Paulo, Brazil – Estádio MorumBIS
• March 23, 2027 – Buenos Aires, Argentina – Estadio River Plate
• March 25, 2027 – Buenos Aires, Argentina – Estadio River Plate

The three cities will be the only Latin American stops on the tour in 2027. Further dates in Europe and North America are expected to be announced in the coming weeks, while plans are also being made for the band's return to Ireland.

U2.com subscriber presales begin today

The first opportunity to buy tickets begins today, Monday, October 19, with the U2.com subscriber presale.

Members of the Feedback subscriber group have first access from 10:00am local time today, October 19.

The Hype subscriber group follows from 10:00am local time on Tuesday, October 20.

Both U2.com subscriber presales will remain open until 10:00pm local time on Wednesday, October 21, subject to ticket availability.

The schedule is:

• October 19, 10:00am local time – U2.com Feedback Presale
• October 20, 10:00am local time – U2.com The Hype Presale
• October 21, 10:00pm local time – U2.com presales close

Paid U2.com subscribers receive access according to their assigned presale group. Fans subscribing now join the Hype group and therefore receive access from Tuesday.

General ticket sales

Following the U2.com presales, general ticket sales for São Paulo and Buenos Aires begin October 22 at 10:00am local time.

Mexico City has an additional Ticketmaster Artist Presale on October 22, followed by the general on-sale on October 23 at 10:00am local time.

U2 return to stadiums

The Greatest Show On Earth World Tour accompanies U2's forthcoming 16th studio album,“Carnaval De Luz.” The tour will feature material from across the band's catalogue and marks U2's return to stadium performances after The Joshua Tree Tour concluded in Mumbai in December 2019.

The tour announcement also arrived alongside the new song“The Greatest Show On Earth,” co-written by U2 and Brian Eno. It is the third single from the forthcoming album, with an accompanying video directed by longtime U2 collaborator Anton Corbijn.

For now, the six shows in Mexico City, São Paulo and Buenos Aires provide the opening chapter of U2's 2027 touring plans. With further announcements for Europe and North America still to come, considerably more dates are expected to be added to the tour.

Tonight, U2 played their 40th and last show of their residency at the Sphere, Las Vegas. It was a very special show indeed.

Before the gig began, the band did a soundcheck that featured the three big surprises mentioned below as well as When Love Comes to Town and Zoo Sration. If they had played When Love Comes to Town, it would have been its 13th appearance at the Sphere. As it stands, 24 February will remain its last performance of the tour. Will this be its last performance ever? It is also easy to wonder if some songs that were played tonight might have appeared for the last time.

U2 opened their set with the usual volley of songs from Achtung Baby. Before One, Bono dedicated the song to Daniel Lanois, who was one of Achtung Baby's producers—and he then welcomed Lanois on stage for a guest performance. The last time Lanois performed live with U2 was on 25 October 2017 at the last show of that year's Joshua Tree Tour. Every show this tour, Bono has snippeted a couple of verses from Love Me Tender to connect One to Until the End of the World. We have normally classified these as a snippet of One, keeping with the tradition of Bono singing a verse or two of another song as a coda to One. Tonight, however, there was a clear break after One, with Love Me Tender functioning as an intro to UTEOTW, so we have classified it as an intro snippet for that song. Indeed, as a commenter pointed out on Twitter, traditionally the snippets between One and UTEOTW have been performed in the same key as One, but on this tour they have been in the same key as UTEOTW.

In the rotational segment mid-show, U2 began with All I Want Is You (dedicated to US first lady Jill Biden, who was in attendance) and Desire; All I Want Is You has been performed at 37 shows out of 40 this tour, and Desire at 35 or 40. Before Desire, Bono joked that it was time to "run away with the circus. This is quite the big top, isn't it?" He then invited fill-in drummer Bram to the mic and asked him "if you were in the circus, what sort of job would you have?" Bram quipped back, quite fittingly, that his role would be as "safety net!" Fans will long remember how adroitly Bram has stood in for Larry Mullen. After Desire, the band turned to Angel of Harlem for its 17th performance at the Sphere, presumably being played in lieu of earlier intentions to do When Love Comes to Town.

A special performance of the Crowded House song Don't Dream It's Over concluded the rotational segment, the ninth time U2 have covered this song. Bono introduced it as an experiment: a live recording for Alexey Navalny and his widow. He made sure beforehand that the crowd knew the chorus in order to sing along. Neil Finn, the frontman of Crowded House, made a sort of guest appearance: he had recently emailed Bono with a new take of his vocal in the style of U2's cover, recorded at his studio in Auckland, New Zealand. This accompanied U2's performance. Bono joked that neither he nor Neil had cleared any recording with their respective record labels.

At the end of the show came a performance that was simultaneously the biggest surprise and the most anticipated song of the night. Before Beautiful Day, the usual closer, Bono hinted that U2 would do an "actual encore" afterwards. When Beautiful Day ended, the crowd began chanting "how long to sing this song", Edge and Adam swapped instruments, and Bono quipped that "it's been 40 days and 40 nights in the desert. What's a guy with a messianic complex going to do?" The answer: launch into the tour debut of 40. Remarkably, this is not the first time 40 has made its tour debut as the very last song of the very last show. It filled the same role at Moncton to conclude the 360 Tour on 30 July 2011. This is the first time 40 has been performed since 5 October 2016, and its most recent performance at a regular tour gig since 28 November 2015.

Farewell from the Sphere! It's been quite the extravaganza.

The full setlist was:

1. I Could Have Lost You (snippet) / Zoo Station
2. Drive My Car (snippet) / The Fly
3. Even Better Than The Real Thing
4. Mysterious Ways / My Sweet Lord (snippet) / I Feel Love (snippet)
5. One / Invisible (snippet) (with Daniel Lanois)
6. Love Me Tender (snippet) / Until the End of the World / Sympathy For The Devil (snippet) / Paint it Black (snippet)
7. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
8. Landlady (snippet) / Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World
9. All I Want Is You Songs of Surrender Mix / Yellow (snippet)
10. Desire / Not Fade Away (snippet)
11. Angel of Harlem
12. Don't Dream It's Over (with Neil Finn)
13. Acrobat
14. So Cruel
15. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
16. Love Is Blindness / Viva Las Vegas (snippet)

encore(s):

17. Elevation / My Way (snippet)
18. Atomic City
19. Vertigo / She Loves You (snippet)
20. Moment of Surrender (snippet) / Where the Streets Have No Name
21. With or Without You
22. Beautiful Day / Gloria (snippet) / Blackbird (snippet)
23. 40

U2's 12th night at the Sphere had a massive surprise in the form of a guest joining the band for three songs.

The opening eight songs were the standard Achtung Baby set, and as usual All I Want Is You was next. As Edge played the opening piano notes of the Songs of Surrender version of the song, Bono discussed how the song was his attempt at writing from the perspective of a woman. He then invited the guest artist on stage and Lady Gaga joined them for the song, trading verses with Bono through the whole performance.

All I Want Is You segued straight into the next song, a cover of Lady Gaga's 2018 single Shallow. The full song was performed rather than the expected snippet, and as the Rattle & Hum section remained at four songs in length tonight was the second straight concert with 23 songs. Lady Gaga remained on stage with the band for the second of those songs, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, and she joined Bono in wishing Arthur Fogle a happy birthday. Angel of Harlem remained out of the set for the third successive night.

Videos of Lady Gaga's complete performance on stage, All I Want Is You & Shallow, and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, both uploaded by YouTuber "MR DEAN".

The remainder of the set followed the established pattern, with Acrobat continuing to wake the Baby after Love Rescue Me.

1. I Could Have Lost You (snippet) / Zoo Station
2. The Fly
3. Even Better Than The Real Thing
4. Mysterious Ways
5. One
6. Love Me Tender (snippet) / Until the End of the World / Paint it Black (snippet)
7. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
8. Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World
9. All I Want Is You Songs of Surrender Mix (with Lady Gaga)
10. Shallow (with Lady Gaga)
11. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (with Lady Gaga) / Movin' On Up (snippet)
12. Desire
13. Love Rescue Me
14. Acrobat
15. So Cruel
16. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
17. Love Is Blindness / Viva Las Vegas (snippet)

encore(s):

18. Elevation / My Way (snippet)
19. Atomic City
20. Vertigo
21. Moment of Surrender (snippet) / Where the Streets Have No Name
22. With or Without You
23. Beautiful Day / Blackbird (snippet) / Glorify (snippet)

Never say that U2 can't surprise you.

The band performed their 10th and 11th concerts at the Sphere on consecutive days, and both had some sort of surprise in store for attendees.

The biggest surprise on night 10 was the residency debut of When Love Comes to Town, which slotted in between Desire and Love Rescue Me in the place of Angel of Harlem. This was the first performance of the song in 5 years, 4 months, and 9 days, having last been played on 11 June 2018 at the Apollo Theater. It was last played on tour on 31 May 2015 in Inglewood, California. This was only the ninth performance of the song since August 1993, and only the seventh full band in that same time. It is actually a bit fitting that it appears at this Achtung Baby themed residency, as it was performed a meaty 79 times on the ZooTV Tour. Kylie Minogue was in attendance this night, and Bono sang a portion of her Can't Take You Out of My Head at the end of All I Want Is You.

Night 11 saw problems with the vocals in the mix in the first half of the show. Before All I Want Is You, Bono was asked to leave the stage so they could fix the issue. He refused, saying "I don't care if there is a problem with the console. Can we do one more song at least? We're about to get married here!" The band continued on, and were informed that the problems were fixed a few songs later. Ed Sheeran was in the crowd, and Bono sang a bit of his song Shape of You at the end of Desire.

The first surprise of the night was the return of (a very passionate) Hear Us Coming at the end of One. It was last sung on 28 October 2018, it's only rendition on the e+i Tour. It has become rare to hear it in recent years; it was at 32 of 51 concerts on The Joshua Tree Tour 2017, but missed the 2019 edition of the tour and the i+e tour entirely, and was played at only 35 of 110 360° concerts. When Love Comes to Town remained in the set, being played at consecutive concerts for the first time since 15 May and 18 May 2015 on the i+e Tour. The last time it was played on consecutive days (with no off-days in between concerts) was 17 July and 18 July 1993.

The other surprise was the return of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For before Love Rescue Me. This meant that the 'rotational' section was 5 songs in length for the first time, and as a result it was the longest night of the residency to date with 23 songs (if you don't count Happy Birthday on night 9).

Tonight was the ninth of U2's residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

Most nights so far have been fairly similar in terms of the set, and tonight featured one minor change with the return of Angel of Harlem in place of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. However, before this there was a song that made it's tour debut, one that debuted way back on the Boy Tour and until tonight had been played only 53 times across the band's career. I am, of course, talking about Happy Birthday. It was sung for Morleigh's birthday, and she came onstage during Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World. Bono handed her his balloon string, asking her to hold it so he could sing to her, and thanked her for teaching him how to dance. She shared a kiss with Edge before leaving the stage.

The set was otherwise as expected. At the end of Angel of Harlem, Bono directed the band into a portion of Suspicious Minds. After missing the last few nights What a Wonderful World was added into the end of Beautiful Day.

1. I Could Have Lost You (snippet) / Zoo Station
2. The Fly
3. Even Better Than The Real Thing
4. Mysterious Ways
5. One
6. Love Me Tender (snippet) / Until the End of the World / Two Tribes (snippet)
7. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
8. Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World
Happy Birthday
9. All I Want Is You Songs of Surrender Mix / Walk On The Wild Side (snippet)
10. Desire
11. Angel of Harlem / Suspicious Minds (snippet)
12. Love Rescue Me
13. Acrobat
14. So Cruel
15. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
16. Love Is Blindness / Viva Las Vegas (snippet)

encore(s):

17. Elevation / My Way (snippet)
18. Atomic City
19. Vertigo
20. Moment of Surrender (snippet) / Where the Streets Have No Name
21. With or Without You
22. Beautiful Day / What a Wonderful World (snippet) / Glorify (snippet)