U2 are set to skip Chile on their upcoming Latin American tour for the first time, after negotiations to bring the band to the country reportedly fell through.
The Irish rock legends announced the first dates of their 2027 ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’ world tour on Thursday (October 15), confirming six shows across Mexico City, São Paulo and Buenos Aires in February and March.
However, Santiago is absent from the itinerary, despite having been a regular stop on all four of the band’s previous Latin American tours.
According to Chilean newspaper La Tercera, negotiations had been underway since 2025 to bring the band back to Chile, but ultimately failed to produce an agreement.
The newspaper had reported in March that plans for a potential concert were being complicated by restrictions at Santiago’s Estadio Nacional, where authorities had begun prioritising sporting events over live music.
The stadium has hosted all four of U2’s previous appearances in the country, and was considered the only suitable venue for the scale of their upcoming production.
However, it has not been established whether the stadium’s availability was ultimately responsible for the failed negotiations. The band have not publicly commented on the omission.
U2 first performed in Chile on February 11, 1998, during their ‘PopMart’ tour. The concert saw relatives of people who had disappeared during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship join the band on stage during ‘Mothers Of The Disappeared’.
They returned in 2006 on the ‘Vertigo’ tour and again in 2011 with their ‘360°’ production, which featured an elaborate, four-legged stage structure nicknamed The Claw.
Their most recent visit came in October 2017, when they performed at the Estadio Nacional as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations for their landmark 1987 album ‘The Joshua Tree’.
U2’s newly announced 2027 shows will form part of their 50th anniversary celebrations, with Beck supporting at all six dates.
Speaking about the upcoming tour, the band said: “It’s a dare, to ourselves as much as anyone, to try and have the best night of anybody’s life.”
The confirmed Latin American dates are:
FEBRUARY 2027
23 – Mexico City, Mexico – Estadio GNP Seguros
26 – Mexico City, Mexico – Estadio GNP Seguros
MARCH 2027
10 – São Paulo, Brazil – Estádio MorumBIS
12 – São Paulo, Brazil – Estádio MorumBIS
23 – Buenos Aires, Argentina – Estadio River Plate
25 – Buenos Aires, Argentina – Estadio River Plate
Tickets for the São Paulo and Buenos Aires shows go on general sale at 10am local time on Thursday (October 22), while the Mexico City dates go on sale at the same time on Friday (October 23).
A subscriber pre-sale begins tomorrow (Monday October 19), with further pre-sales taking place throughout the week. Find tickets here.
The tour will support the band’s upcoming 16th studio album ‘Carnaval De Luz’, which is due for release on November 13 and will mark their first album of new material since 2017’s ‘Songs Of Experience’.
They also released a new single, ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’, alongside the tour announcement. The song was co-written with Brian Eno and accompanied by a video directed by Anton Corbijn.
Further dates in the UK, Europe and North America are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
The tour will also see drummer Larry Mullen Jr. return to full-scale live performances after undergoing neck and back surgery, having missed the band’s 2023-24 Las Vegas Sphere residency.
Last month, U2 celebrated their 50th anniversary with surprise performances in Dublin, including a return to their former school, where the band originally formed in 1976.
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