Shakira and Burna Boy Light Up the Azteca at FIFA World Cup 2026 Opening Ceremony

Shakira and Burna Boy took the stage at one of football's most iconic venues to premiere 'Dai Dai', the official anthem of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, in front of a packed stadium and a global television audience watching from across the world. The performance came ninety minutes before the tournament's opening match kicked off, setting the tone for what promises to be the biggest World Cup in the history of the competition the first to feature 48 teams, jointly hosted across Mexico, the United States and Canada and running through to July 19.

They were joined on stage by J Balvin, Belinda and Tyla in a ceremony that drew on the musical breadth of the three host nations and beyond, but it was the headline duo who defined the evening. Shakira, performing on a World Cup stage for the third time in her career following Waka Waka at the 2010 tournament in South Africa and La La La at the 2014 edition in Brazil, moved through the performance with the authority of someone who understands exactly what this stage demands and has delivered on it before. For Burna Boy, standing in the Azteca with a billion eyes on him, it was something different entirely his debut on the FIFA World Cup stage, the biggest platform in global sport, and a moment that announced his arrival in a space where very few African artists have ever stood.

The song itself arrived in mid-May and has spent the weeks since building steadily toward this moment. It has surpassed 75 million views on YouTube in under a month, topped charts across multiple countries and drawn praise for the way it brings together Shakira's Latin pop instincts and Burna Boy's Afrobeats influence into something that feels cohesive rather than forced. These are two artists from different worlds sonically, and the fact that 'Dai Dai' sounds like it belongs to both of them simultaneously is a credit to the craft that went into it.

The track also carries a purpose beyond the spectacle. A portion of its proceeds will go toward a $100 million fund dedicated to improving children's access to education and football worldwide, a dimension of the song's existence that has added a layer of meaning to its commercial success.

For Shakira, this is familiar territory elevated further. Waka Waka remains one of the most recognisable songs in World Cup history, a record that has accumulated over four billion YouTube views and embedded itself in the collective memory of a generation of football fans. The bar she set for herself sixteen years ago in Johannesburg is one of the most demanding in popular music. That FIFA turned to her again, and that she turned to an African collaborator to meet this particular moment, says something about both the reach of Afrobeats globally and the trust the sport's governing body places in her instincts.

For Burna Boy, the Azteca performance is the latest point in a trajectory that has moved from the clubs of Port Harcourt to the biggest arenas and stages on the planet. He has performed at Glastonbury, sold out Madison Square Garden and won a Grammy. But a FIFA World Cup opening ceremony, watched live by hundreds of millions of people in the tournament's first hours, is a different category of moment entirely. African Giant, the title he gave himself years ago, has rarely felt more literal.

The 2026 World Cup is now underway. It began with a song that the world had already heard a million times but had been waiting to hear like this live, loud and under the lights of the Azteca.