Shakira and Burna Boy have recorded “Dai Dai,” the official song for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and the singer teased the track last week with a minute-long clip of herself dancing in the center of Maracaná Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
The song, which blends Afrobeats and Latin rhythms, includes Shakira singing the lines “Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia” and “Mexico, Japan, Korea, Netherlands,” and will be available to stream Thursday evening.
Shakira is the story’s hinge. She has opened and closed World Cups before—from performing “Hips Don’t Lie” with Wyclef Jean at the 2006 closing ceremony to recording the official 2010 anthem “Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)” and the 2014 theme “La La La (Brazil 2014).” Her return as a lead voice for the tournament’s soundtrack underlines how FIFA is leaning on familiar global pop moments.
The timing is deliberate: FIFA announced on Wednesday that Shakira will co-headline the organization’s first-ever final halftime show on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, alongside Madonna and BTS. The halftime lineup was curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin and will support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which is raising $100 million to help children access education and soccer.
Chris Martin framed the halftime show as more than spectacle, saying it is about bringing people together to sing, dance and celebrate differences, and noting the opportunity to raise money for children’s education.
Shakira herself signaled eagerness for the full release, telling fans she can’t wait for them to hear the entire song and punctuating her message with the chant-like, multilingual refrain heard in the teaser.
The weight of this moment is in the numbers and the stage: a $100 million fundraising goal tied to the tournament’s climax, three global superstars sharing the final’s spotlight for the first time, and a new official song that mixes Afrobeats with Latin flavors at a World Cup hosted across North America.
Context matters: Shakira is not new to this playbook. Her previous World Cup tracks became fixtures of the tournaments they accompanied, and the Maracaná teaser — a one-minute clip filmed in a stadium synonymous with soccer pageantry — made clear that FIFA and its performers intend “Dai Dai” to travel fast and wide.
There is friction in the framing. FIFA is staging an unprecedented halftimescape in New Jersey curated by a British rock frontman while premiering a song that leans strongly on Afro-Latin fusion and was previewed in Rio. The sequence underscores how global pop and sport are being stitched together across continents to serve a single weekend: the World Cup finals and its surrounding events, including a planned takeover of Times Square during finals weekend.
That split — rehearsal footage in Maracaná, the final set in MetLife — also highlights how the song will be marketed as a unifier, even as the logistics bind disparate cities, sounds and star schedules into one moment on July 19.
For listeners, the immediate next step is simple and concrete: the shakira new fifa song will hit streaming services Thursday evening. Fans who heard the teaser should expect the full version of “Dai Dai” to expand on the chant, the cross-continental rhythms and the lines naming countries across South America, North America, Asia and Europe.
For FIFA and the performers, the next benchmark is the halftime show itself, a charity-linked spectacle intended to funnel attention and, organizers hope, money, toward the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund’s $100 million target to improve children’s access to education and soccer.
Everything on the calendar points to one conclusion: with “Dai Dai” and a headline halftime roster curated by Chris Martin, FIFA is positioning the song and the July 19 performance as the soundtrack and centerpiece of finals weekend — a global entertainment push built to drive both streams and fundraising before the final whistle.
