Tyla, Future, LISA and Anitta lead historic World Cup opener in Los Angeles

Tyla, Future, LISA, Anitta and Rema turned SoFi Stadium into FIFA’s loudest showcase for its North American World Cup plan, fronting a ceremony built as much around entertainment branding as soccer. The Los Angeles opening, staged at Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood and identified by FIFA as SoFi Stadium, began at 4:30 p.m. local time and was set before the United States played its first match of the tournament later the same day.

FIFA framed the production as a milestone for the sport and for the continent. For the first time in World Cup history, it programmed three opening ceremonies, one in Canada, one in Mexico and one in the United States, turning the tournament launch into a shared North American celebration. In Los Angeles, the organization tied the spectacle to the city’s status as the capital of entertainment and to its broader ambition of merging football, music and culture on a global stage.

The lineup reflected that strategy. FIFA had also announced Katy Perry among the performers, alongside Future, Anitta, LISA, Rema and Tyla. The stadium crowd was not just there to watch: FIFA said fans inside the venue would play an active role in the show and urged them to arrive early because of security and access procedures. That made the ceremony feel less like a conventional pre-match concert and more like a choreographed opening statement for the tournament.

The music extended the message beyond the stadium. FIFA introduced Goals, a collaboration by LISA, Anitta and Rema for the official World Cup album, as a blend of latin pop, K-pop and Afrobeats. It also introduced Game Time, a track from Future and Tyla that it billed as the album’s first song with hip hop influence, with its live debut slated for the Los Angeles ceremony.

Los Angeles will host eight matches at the 2026 World Cup, including group-stage games, a round-of-16 match and a quarterfinal, making the city one of the tournament’s central stages. FIFA also pointed back to the region’s place in the 1994 World Cup, when Southern California helped shape the sport’s memory in the United States. In Los Angeles, the opening ceremony looked designed to sell the same idea again: a World Cup staged not only as competition, but as a large-scale cultural event meant to feel unmistakably North American.