Irish rock legends U2 are set to omit Chile from the first leg of their 2027 ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’ world tour, marking the first time the band will skip the country on a Latin American run. Reports indicate that negotiations to secure a Santiago date ultimately fell through.
The band unveiled the initial dates of their milestone 50th-anniversary tour on Thursday, confirming six shows across Mexico City, São Paulo, and Buenos Aires for February and March. The absence of Santiago is notable, as the city has been a consistent stop on all four of U2’s previous Latin American treks.
According to Chilean newspaper La Tercera, discussions to bring the group back to the country had been ongoing since 2025 but failed to yield an agreement. Earlier in the year, reports suggested that the proposed concert was complicated by scheduling conflicts at Santiago’s Estadio Nacional. The venue, which has hosted all four of the band’s prior Chilean performances, was deemed the only suitable location for the scale of their upcoming production.
It remains unconfirmed whether the stadium’s unavailability was the definitive cause of the collapsed deal. To date, U2 has not issued an official statement regarding the omission.
View this post on Instagram
U2’s history with Chile dates back to February 11, 1998, during their ‘PopMart’ tour, a concert famously remembered for relatives of the disappeared under Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship joining the band on stage for “Mothers Of The Disappeared.” The band subsequently returned in 2006 for the ‘Vertigo’ tour and in 2011 with their ‘360°’ production, before last performing there in October 2017 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree.
The newly announced 2027 dates are a key component of the band’s 50th-anniversary celebrations, with Beck slated to support at all six venues. Speaking of the tour, the band shared, “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, with the Mexico City dates following on Friday, October 23. A subscriber pre-sale commences on Monday, October 19.
The tour will support the band’s upcoming 16th studio album, Carnaval De Luz, scheduled for release on November 13. This will be their first collection of new material since 2017’s Songs Of Experience. Alongside the tour announcement, they released the new single, ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’, co-written with Brian Eno and accompanied by a video directed by Anton Corbijn.
Additional tour dates in the UK, Europe, and North America are anticipated in the coming weeks. The run will also mark the return of drummer Larry Mullen Jr. to full-scale live performances following neck and back surgery, having missed the band’s 2023–24 Las Vegas Sphere residency. Last month, U2 marked their 50th anniversary with surprise performances in Dublin, including a return to the school where the band originally formed in 1976.