U2 releases Dolly Parton duet Torn on its new album

U2’s “Carnaval De Luz” arrived on November 13, and its closing track carries an especially poignant collaboration: “Torn,” a duet between Bono and Dolly Parton. The band says the new record is its first album of new material in nine years. Parton’s official site announced the country version’s November 12 world premiere, one day before the album release.

The song was co-written by U2, Parton and Johnny McDaid. According to both the band and Parton’s official site, she recorded her vocal in Nashville in June 2026. Her team describes it as the final vocal performance she recorded before her death on August 25. That is a specific claim about the order of her recordings, not a reason to suggest the song was composed as a farewell or that its lyrics describe her own family.

U2 calls “Torn” a country song about broken family ties. The album version closes the group’s 16th studio album, while a separate country version, the Kent Wells Version, is also being released. Listeners should check the version label when they hear the track, since the two releases are not identical.

The wider record marks a return to a full-length set of new U2 songs after nearly a decade, although the band has issued other music in between. The album’s appearance today is the fresh event; its existence and Parton’s contribution were announced earlier. An Associated Press account of that earlier announcement independently described the duet and reported that Parton’s representative confirmed it was her last recorded vocal.

The result is both a current album release and a new chance to hear Parton alongside one of rock’s longest-running groups. This page uses clearly labelled older photographs rather than implying that an image shows the recording session.