Shakira unveils 2026 World Cup song Dai Dai with Burna Boy

Shakira turned Maracanã Stadium into a global staging ground for FIFA’s next World Cup anthem, teasing “Dai Dai,” a new song featuring Nigerian Afrobeats star Burna Boy, ahead of its May 14 release. The one-minute clip, filmed in Rio de Janeiro and shared on May 7, placed one of pop’s most recognizable names back in the tournament’s spotlight as FIFA builds toward a World Cup it wants framed as bigger, broader and more borderless than any before it.

The song is Shakira’s second official FIFA World Cup entry, following “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” the anthem tied to the 2010 tournament in South Africa. That return is more than a nostalgic callback. It shows how FIFA keeps leaning on familiar global stars to give the event instant reach, emotional familiarity and cross-border marketing power, especially as the 2026 competition stretches across the United States, Mexico and Canada.

The tournament itself is being sold as a landmark edition. FIFA has described World Cup 2026 as the biggest and most exciting yet, with 48 teams competing in 104 fixtures. Matches are scheduled from June 11 to July 19, 2026, across 16 host cities, making it the first World Cup organized across three countries and the first to expand to a 48-team field.

That scale helps explain the music strategy. Shakira brings deep recognition across Latin America, the United States and Spain-speaking audiences, while Burna Boy adds a strong Afrobeats presence and a different global lane. Together, the pairing gives FIFA a song designed to travel well across languages, markets and streaming platforms, while keeping the World Cup tied to artists with proven international pull.

The Maracanã setting adds another layer. By teasing the track from one of football’s most iconic stadiums, Shakira linked the 2026 anthem to the sport’s most recognizable imagery even before the first match is played. For FIFA, the rollout suggests a branding strategy built on scale, familiarity and cultural fusion, with Shakira once again serving as the face of a tournament meant to unite North American host cities and the wider Latino market under one soundtrack.