Shakira returns to official World Cup tune responsibility, this time with Burna Boy

Shakira and Burna Boy, two of the most important artists on the worldwide stage, have joined forces for the official tune of the 2026 World Cup.

“Dai Dai,” launched on streaming platforms Friday, “captures the energy, passion and global spirit that will define the greatest show on earth,” FIFA mentioned in an announcement, including that royalties from the tune will assist the FIFA International Citizen Schooling Fund. It goals to boost $100 million for kids’s schooling and soccer alternatives by the top of the match, which runs from June 11 by means of July 19.

The tune’s title comes from the enthusiastic Italian expression that means “come on, come on,” and its lyrics embody the English, Japanese, French and Spanish equivalents.

The monitor blends Afrobeats with Latin Pop, sung principally in English and a little bit of Spanish. It is sprinkled with inspirational messages, references to well-known soccer gamers (“Pelé, Maradona, Maldini, Romário, Cristiano Ronaldo”) and the names of nations taking part in on this 12 months’s match (“Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia, U.S., England, Germany, France”).

“It has a lot of the typical signs of a good World Cup song,” says Eduardo Herrera, an affiliate professor of ethnomusicology at Indiana College whose work focuses on soccer chants and fandoms.

“But I think this is purposefully FIFA’s effort to have a successful song by bringing in artists that they know [are] going to appeal to at least two large numbers of the population, the Latin population and the sub-Saharan African population.”

Burna Boy is a Nigerian singer who’s credited with bringing Afrobeats to a extra mainstream viewers by means of smash hits like “Last Last.” The so-called “African Giant” grew to become the primary solo Nigerian artist to win a Grammy Award (for greatest international music album) in 2021, and the primary African artist to promote out a U.S. stadium (New York’s Citi Discipline in 2023).

And Shakira is not any stranger to creating World Cup music.

Her hit “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” helped outline the 2010 match and ultimately outlive it. It earned the Guinness World Document in January 2025 for “most streamed FIFA World Cup song on Spotify,” with over a billion listens at that time.

The Colombian singer additionally carried out a particular model of her tune “Hips Don’t Lie” on the 2006 World Cup closing ceremony, and “La La La (Brazil 2014)” — which was featured on FIFA’s official album — on the closing ceremony in 2014.

“She’s … good at kind of incorporating elements or gestures towards other cultures,” Brent Keogh, a lecturer in music and sound design on the College of Expertise Sydney, instructed NPR’s All Issues Thought-about. “So she can kind of pull on these things and bring it into this global pop package.”

Shakira — together with Madonna and Okay-pop band BTS — may even headline the first-ever halftime present at this 12 months’s World Cup remaining in New Jersey, which FIFA introduced earlier this week. Followers are more likely to hear “Dai Dai” there.

However that is not the one place the tune will pop up. And it is also not the one tune that will come to outline the World Cup.

How World Cup music has developed 

Music has been part of the World Cup since its debut in 1930, Herrera says. Initially, it was related to native musicians from a bunch nation and even the nationwide staff (as was the case with this German polka tune in 1974).

Within the Nineties, he says, FIFA began transferring away from nationwide songs to “more global-sounding” numbers, and “exploring what it meant to have an official song.” These have sometimes been commissioned in recent times, Herrera believes. FIFA didn’t reply to NPR’s questions on its choice course of.

One early, seminal instance is Ricky Martin’s “La Copa de la Vida” (“The Cup of Life“) from the 1998 World Cup, which grew to become a worldwide hit and catapulted Martin to superstardom.

Martin carried out it on the 1999 Grammy Awards, the place he gained Finest Latin Pop Efficiency for the album Vuelve, which featured the tune. That electrifying efficiency is credited with serving to usher within the late ’90s “Latin Explosion,” which noticed stars like Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Enrique Iglesias and Shakira dominate mainstream U.S. airwaves.

Herrera says “Waka Waka” in 2010 ushered in a shift towards Latin songs with extra of an Afrobeats and Afrofusion affect.

The official tune of the 2014 World Cup was “We Are One (Ole Ola)” by Pitbull, that includes Jennifer Lopez and Brazilian singer Claudia Leitte. The title monitor of the 2018 match was “Live It Up,” by American singer Nicky Jam that includes Will Smith and Period Istrefi, produced by Diplo (who additionally featured on this 12 months’s Olympics closing ceremony).

There was no single official tune in 2022; quite, a broader FIFA album. Its first single was “Hayya Hayya (Better Together)” carried out by Trinidad Cardona, Davido, and Aisha. However for many individuals, that wasn’t the defining soundtrack of the newest World Cup.

Not all defining World Cup songs are official 

The official tune is not the World Cup’s solely musical providing. There’s additionally a World Cup anthem, which Herrera says is often performed in additional formal settings just like the opening and shutting ceremonies.

“The official song is meant to be more like this exciting thing that people get after, and perhaps happens between half times and is being used in broadcasting and … in the stadium, while the anthems [are] more protocol, I think,” Herrera says.

FIFA can also be releasing an official 2026 World Cup album, that includes songs from artists from the match’s host nations: the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

A few of these have already been launched, together with “Lighter” by Jelly Roll and Carín León, “Por Ella” by Los Ángeles Azules and Belinda, and “Illuminate” by Jessie Reyez and Elyanna.

Whereas World Cup organizers are closely selling sure songs, Herrera says many others might be vying to outline the match this 12 months.

“[There is a] tension between the official things that FIFA’s trying to present and then what the crowds are going to bring into that picture,” he explains. “You have a bunch of songs and it’s always a little unpredictable to know which one is going to be the hit.”

These may simply be pop songs that come to dominate the charts whereas the World Cup is occurring. They might come from artists in particular international locations who’re making extra native songs about their nationwide groups, as is the case in locations like Colombia and Argentina.

They might additionally come from followers, as was the case within the final World Cup in 2022, when Argentine supporters stuffed streets and stadiums with the unofficial anthem “Muchachos” as their staff superior (and finally gained).

“And I think that the access to YouTube and WhatsApp … made it become more prominent than even the official song, which, actually, I don’t fully remember what it was,” he provides.

Herrera is curious to see what takes off this 12 months, particularly as World Cup headlines have up to now centered on political turmoil, excessive ticket costs and fan boycotts.

“There’s a certain kind of a festive atmosphere that is going to be created outside the stadium, even perhaps more than inside the stadium, simply because it’s so expensive to go inside,” he says.