Its live debut was on 18 October 1984, as an intro to "The Unforgettable Fire", and the two songs were performed together at almost all Unforgettable Fire Tour shows and most Joshua Tree Tour shows. However, by the end of the Joshua Tree Tour, the band started to use "MLK" to precede other songs, especially "One Tree Hill", and it continued in this capacity on the Lovetown Tour. It failed to appear on the Zoo TV Tour but returned to the set list on the PopMart Tour, especially after the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Michael Hutchence. It went into another hiatus after PopMart, missing the entire Elevation Tour, but was notably performed as the intro to "Where the Streets Have No Name" at U2's appearance during the Super Bowl XXXVI halftime show in 2002. After the death of Rosa Parks, it made five Vertigo Tour appearances; in all five instances, it was sung after "One" to conclude the main set. "MLK" was a part of the main set list for the U2 360° Tour, as the prelude to "Walk On". The song was dropped midway through the tour and was replaced with "Scarlet". It was not played live again until The Joshua Tree Tours 2017 and 2019, during which it was played on opening night before being replaced by "Bad" the following night.