Shakira Just Set A World Cup Record No One Else Holds
Image: lev radin (via Shutterstock)
Shakira closed out the 2026 World Cup the way she opened it: on stage, in front of a global audience, adding another line to a résumé no other artist can claim. After Spain beat Argentina in Sunday's final, she returned to perform "Dai Dai" during the closing ceremony, her fourth World Cup appearance in twenty years.
It started in Berlin. In 2006, a 29-year-old Shakira performed "Hips Don't Lie" at the World Cup finale, years before the song became one of the most-played tracks of the decade. Four years later, FIFA handed her the biggest stage in football for the first World Cup held on African soil: "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" became the official 2010 anthem, played at both the opening and closing ceremonies in South Africa, and turned into one of the most-watched music videos of all time.
2014 brought Brazil, and with it "La La La," written and performed for a tournament steeped in football history. By then, Shakira wasn't just a World Cup guest; she was becoming its unofficial house artist.
This year made it official. She opened the 2026 tournament at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, returned for the first-ever World Cup halftime show alongside Burna Boy and the Triplet Ghetto Kids, and then closed the whole thing out after the final whistle. Three ceremonies, one tournament, one artist who's now done this four times over, a mark nobody else in World Cup history has hit.
Twenty years, four tournaments, zero competition for the title.
