"Zooropa" is a song by Irish rock band U2, and is the opening track from their 1993 album of the same name. The song was the result of combining two pieces of music, the first of which was conceived in the studio, and the second of which was a soundcheck recording from one of the group's concert tours that was discovered by guitarist the Edge. The lyrics were written by lead vocalist Bono and describe two characters in a brightly lit city in a futuristic version of European society. Some lyrics in the song were taken directly from advertising slogans, and they also featured the phrase "dream out loud", which has appeared in other U2 media. The song touched on several themes, including moral confusion and the future of European society.

Promotional recordings of the song were released in the United States and Mexico, and the song appeared on two record charts shortly after its release in 1993. The song was briefly performed at three shows on U2's Zoo TV Tour in 1993. The band had difficulties performing it in 1993, and it was not played again until the U2 360° Tour in 2011.

The recording of the song received mostly positive reception from critics, who praised it as the album's opening track.

During the Zoo TV Tour in 1992, U2 were trying to create a vision of an attractive future for Europe, as opposed to a negative, dystopian image that would be found in science fiction. With recent and ongoing events in Europe, such as the Revolutions of 1989, the enlargement of the European Union, and the Bosnian War, lead vocalist Bono created a surreal vision of a European location called "Zooropa". Bono has referred to Zooropa as being a concept album, with a main theme of the exploration of interpellation within the European Union.

"['Zooropa'] was our attempt to create a world rather than just songs and it's a beautiful world. The opening was our new manifesto [... and] the audio equivalent of Blade Runner's visuals. If you closed your eyes you could see the neon, the giant LED screens advertising all manner of ephemera."

Bono and guitarist the Edge had been reading works by cyberpunk author William Gibson, who wrote about a futuristic urban environment known as "The Sprawl". Gibson was an influence in the texture of the song, which Bono described as "fucked up sci-fi". Bono wanted to use noise to create a visual setting for the song, similar to Gibson's futuristic world, filled with advertisements on LED displays and neon signs, as in the 1982 film Blade Runner. With "Zooropa" as the album's opening song, Bono stated that he wanted the album's music to be like "legal drugs" that would create a trip where "you come out of the other end and you feel like you've been on some kind of a journey". The closing song on the album, "The Wanderer", features Johnny Cash on vocals, and was intended on being the "antidote" to the futuristic-sounding opener.

"Zooropa" was written and recorded during the album's sessions at Windmill Lane Studios and The Factory Studios in Dublin, which took place from March to May 1993 between legs of the Zoo TV Tour. The song was created from two separate pieces of music. The first was a jam session recorded by the band in Dublin during the album's sessions. The second was a soundcheck the band had recorded a few years prior on tour in Australia or New Zealand that the Edge found while listening to cassette recordings of their soundchecks. Along with sound engineer Joe O'Herlihy, the Edge edited the best parts of the soundcheck using Sound Tools to create a song arrangement, which served as a backing track. The two-halves of the song were then edited into a stereo mix. Producer Flood created an atmospheric mix and then crossfaded it in with the song's "sombre, ethereal" introduction. The bass guitar in the intro was played by drummer Larry Mullen Jr. while the Edge was busy working on the album's guitar riffs.

Synthesizer sounds were added by producer Brian Eno on a Yamaha DX7 keyboard, including a "squishy, mad-synth sound" to create a "dovetail" connecting the different segments of the song. The Edge later added guitar tracks, as well as additional sounds to the song using an EMS Synthi A synthesiser. Once the song was almost finished, the band had doubts about the first half's backing track. Having established an arrangement for the song, they performed it again in the studio and used the new recording for the first half, while using portions of the new performance for the second half.