Shakira is back on the World Cup stage, and she's not doing it quietly. The official video for 'Dai Dai' — the FIFA 2026 anthem — dropped Saturday, and it opens with Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, and Erling Haaland stepping onto the pitch to announce they're ready. The song already had over a million Instagram likes within hours. The tournament hasn't even started yet.
The four-minute video was shot in Miami and directed by Hannah Lux Davis. It opens on Mexico City's Angel of Independence, moves through a desert landscape featuring Burna Boy and a group of African children, and eventually lands in a stadium filled with dancers representing competing nations. The closing stretch leans into nostalgia — archival World Cup footage paired with Shakira calling out Maradona, Maldini, Romario, Beckham, Kaká, and Messi. An ambitious roll call that doubles as a reminder of just how much football history is baked into this tournament's identity.
From Waka Waka to Dai Dai
'Waka Waka' became one of the most-streamed World Cup songs ever after South Africa 2010. Shakira knows exactly what this platform means, and 'Dai Dai' — released in audio form on May 16 — feels like a deliberate attempt to build something with the same global reach, this time with Burna Boy anchoring the Afrobeats influence.
The bigger event might actually be July 19. Shakira is co-headlining the first-ever FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show at the New York-New Jersey Stadium — alongside Madonna and BTS, with the whole thing curated by Chris Martin and produced by Global Citizen. That's a lineup that will draw eyeballs well beyond the football crowd.
FIFA World Cup 2026 runs from June 11 to July 19. The tournament spans the US, Canada, and Mexico — the most geographically ambitious World Cup ever staged. With 48 teams competing for the first time, and a halftime show that looks more like a stadium festival than a football interval, the off-pitch spectacle is already earning its own headlines.
The nations Shakira name-checks — Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, the US, the Netherlands — are among the sides that oddsmakers will be pricing heavily once squads are confirmed and the group stage draw is done. But right now, it's the song doing the talking.
