Shakira and Burna Boy headline 2026 World Cup opening in Mexico City

Shakira and Burna Boy closed the show at the 2026 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony in Mexico City, on June 11, with their official anthem for the tournament, 'Dai Dai.' The ceremony kicked off before the first whistle at Mexico’s historic Azteca Stadium, with Mexico (co-hosting alongside the USA and Canada) taking on South Africa in the opening match.

That pairing matters because it is not just “celebrity entertainment.” It is a carefully sequenced brand moment: the crowd got a classic sing-along from Mexican Latin rock veterans Maná, reggaeton energy from Venezuelan artist Danny Ocean, cumbia from Los Ángeles Azules with Spanish-Mexican singer Belinda, and a J Balvin medley that included 'Qué Calor' and 'Una A La Vez' plus his 2018 Cardi B collaboration, 'I Like It.' Then the official World Cup anthem landed, with 'Dai Dai' naming football legends Pele, Diego Maradona, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Mo Salah. In other words, FIFA made sure the music didn’t merely accompany the sport, it narrated the sport’s greatest names.

The ceremony itself read like a playlist engineered for multiple audiences at once. Maná opened with their 1992 hit 'Oye Mi Amor,' and the thousands in attendance audibly sang along. That is a smart use of familiarity: it turns a stadium into a chorus before the anthem branding and before the match even starts. From there, the show moved through genres that travel well across borders. Danny Ocean performed 'Partidazo,' described as a track released as part of the official 2026 FIFA World Cup album, which signals how FIFA’s music strategy is tied to an owned content ecosystem, not one-off appearances.

Then came Los Ángeles Azules and Belinda performing 'Por Ella,' followed by J Balvin taking the reins with a medley of crowd-recognizable songs. The medley sequence matters because it compresses a lot of cultural memory into a short time window, which is exactly what opening ceremonies are built for. The goal is to give viewers at home a “through-line” to remember, while still delivering enough novelty to feel like a fresh start for a new World Cup cycle.

Shakira and Burna Boy closing the ceremony with 'Dai Dai' also adds an extra layer to the messaging. The article notes that 'Dai Dai' is Shakira’s third official World Cup song, following 2010’s 'Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)' and 2014’s 'Dare (La La La).' This creates continuity across tournaments, which is valuable for long-term brand consistency. It also situates the 2026 tournament inside a multi-year musical arc that fans may associate with Shakira herself, not just FIFA.

Meanwhile, FIFA kept the campaign moving beyond Mexico City immediately. The article says there will also be opening ceremonies tomorrow, June 12, in Canada and the US. Alanis Morissette, Alessia Cara, and Michael Bublé are set to play the former, while Katy Perry, Future, Anitta, Lisa, Rema, and Tyla headline the latter. That geographic split is a second-order signal for executives and board members: FIFA is staging a localized kickoff for each host region, but tying them all back to a single global event identity.

There is more. Shakira is also part of the first ever World Cup Final Halftime Show on July 19 in MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The show is curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin and will include Madonna and BTS. Noel Gallagher reportedly will not be watching, claiming that he will be “doing the half-time raffle for a leg of lamb” instead. Even if you ignore the comedy, the strategic point is clear: FIFA is treating the final as a full entertainment property with a production-scale music lineup, not just a match.

And for anyone tracking what this means for music, media, and partnerships around sports, the article adds other World Cup-adjacent music moves. Baddiel, Skinner & Lightning Seeds announced a 30th anniversary re-release of 'Three Lions' as England head into another World Cup this summer. John Barnes revealed audio clips from 1990 showing Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne and Peter Beardsley attempting his iconic rap for 'World in Motion.' Belle & Sebastian shared a buoyant 2026 Scotland World Cup anthem, 'It Only Takes One Lion,' and frontman Stuart Murdoch told NME about his hopes for the team.

Zoom out and you get the bigger lesson for leaders in marketing, sponsorship, and event operations: opening ceremonies are becoming multi-stakeholder distribution channels. They compress brand storytelling into music and talent booking, then extend it into a content calendar that runs from opening day to halftime, with country-specific lineups that still feel unified. If you are an executive building a global brand play, the 2026 FIFA rollout is basically a case study in how to turn mass attention into a repeatable media asset. And for boards deciding where to allocate sponsorship energy and production spend, FIFA’s approach is the reminder that the “product” is no longer only the match. It is the entire cultural moment around it.