U2 will release a new duet with Dolly Parton, ‘Torn,’ on Friday, November 13, and the song will stand as the final track on Carnaval De Luz, the band’s 16th studio album. Parton recorded her part in Nashville, Tennessee in June, making the release both a new U2 single and the last recorded vocal performance by one of country music’s most recognizable voices.
The timing gives the song its weight. Readers are searching now because the album is set to arrive on a fixed date, and the track tied to Parton is already being positioned as the one that closes the record. For listeners, that means the moment is not just a catalog update; it is the first chance to hear a collaboration that crosses U2 and Dolly Parton at a point when her voice can no longer be recorded again. The song is produced by Jacknife Lee and also features Daniel Lanois on pedal steel, while credit lines also name Johnny McDaid, Joy Willis, Kevin Willis, Chris Lord-Alge and Ted Jensen.
There is another detail that keeps this from sounding like a standard release cycle. ‘Torn’ is arriving after Parton’s passing on August 25, 2026, even though it contains her final recorded vocal performance. That gives the song a different kind of permanence: it is new to the public, but final in a way that cannot be repeated or revised. The setup is rare enough on its own; the fact that it is landing on a U2 album makes it even more unusual.
The rollout does not stop with the album. A Country Version titled ‘Torn’ (Kent Wells Version) will get an exclusive Country Radio World Premiere on Thursday, November 12, and it will air all day across iHeart, Cumulus, Audacy, Beasley, Summit, Townsquare and SiriusXM The Highway, Prime Country and Y2Country, as well as Music Choice. Big Machine Records will represent, service and promote that version, giving the track a second life in country radio before the album release lands the next day. What remains unanswered is not when the song will arrive, but how U2, Parton and McDaid came to this collaboration in the first place; for now, the record itself is the answer, and it arrives with Parton’s voice at the center of it.
