On February 11, 1998, the PopMart Tour stopped at Estadio Nacional in Santiago, Chile, where family members of those who disappeared under the Pinochet dictatorship joined U2 onstage to sing "Mothers Of The Disappeared" together. It was U2's first time setting foot in Chile, and the start of a relationship between the band and the stadium that would last nearly three decades. Now, that relationship has come to an end.
U2 announced the first batch of dates for its 2027 "The Greatest Show On Earth" world tour on October 15, with six Latin American shows total: two nights at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City on February 23 and 26, followed by Estádio MorumBIS in São Paulo on March 10 and 12, and wrapping up at River Plate stadium in Buenos Aires on March 23 and 25. Chile is nowhere on the list.
This marks the first time U2 has skipped the country across its four Latin American tour runs. According to Chilean newspaper La Tercera, the two sides had been in talks since 2025 but ultimately failed to reach an agreement. An earlier report from the same outlet back in March noted that Estadio Nacional has increasingly prioritized sporting events over concerts, complicating venue scheduling — and this is the very stadium that has hosted all four of U2's previous shows in Chile, widely seen as the only venue in the country capable of handling a production of this scale. Still, whether scheduling conflicts were the ultimate deal-breaker remains unconfirmed, and the band itself has made no public comment on the absence.
Four Visits to Estadio Nacional
After the 1998 PopMart Tour, U2 returned to Chile during the 2006 Vertigo Tour, came back again in 2011 with the four-legged stage rig nicknamed "The Claw" for the 360° Tour, and most recently played Estadio Nacional in October 2017 for the 30th anniversary tour of their 1987 classic album "The Joshua Tree." This 2027 run is part of U2's celebration of its 50th anniversary as a band, with Beck set to open all six shows. Of the new tour, the band said: "This is a challenge — a challenge to ourselves and to everyone — to figure out how to give people the best night of their lives."
General ticket sales for the São Paulo and Buenos Aires shows open at 10 a.m. local time on October 22, while the Mexico City show goes on sale a day later, on October 23, at the same time. Subscriber presales kick off October 19. The tour will coincide with the release of U2's 16th studio album, "Carnaval De Luz," out November 13 — the band's first new record since 2017's "Songs Of Experience." U2 has also released a new single, "The Greatest Show On Earth," co-written with Brian Eno, with a music video directed by Anton Corbijn. UK, European, and North American dates are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
The tour will also mark drummer Larry Mullen Jr.'s first full-scale live return following surgery on his neck and back, an injury that kept him off the band's 2023–2024 Sphere residency in Las Vegas. Last month, U2 held surprise 50th anniversary shows in Dublin, including one at the very school where the band formed back in 1976.
