#DaiDai is the hashtag for the official song of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, a collaboration between Colombian superstar Shakira and Nigerian Afrobeats artist #BurnaBoy released on 15 May 2026. The track blends Afrobeats, reggaetón, dance-pop and global percussion under a chant whose title roughly means “let’s go,” and was performed live at the tournament’s Mexico City opening ceremony on 11 June 2026.
Quick Facts
- Artists: Shakira & Burna Boy
- Released: 15 May 2026
- Label: Sony Music Latin / Ace Entertainment
- Live debut: Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, 11 June 2026 (World Cup opening ceremony)
- Co-writers: Shakira Mebarak, Ed Sheeran, Jon Bellion, Ahmed Saghir, Alexander “A.C.” Castillo Vasquez
- Chart: No. 2 on Billboard US World Digital Song Sales
The Song
“Dai Dai” runs just under four minutes and is built on Afrobeats percussion, reggaetón cadence and a stadium-scale dance-pop hook. The chant “dai dai” — the phrase that gives the song and the hashtag their name — functions as a motivational ad-lib aimed at players and crowds alike, with lyrics referencing soccer history and individual icons. Co-written by Shakira with Ed Sheeran, Jon Bellion, Ahmed Saghir, and Alexander Castillo Vasquez, the song was billed by FIFA as the tournament’s signature musical identity across broadcasts, opening ceremonies and trailers.
Origin
FIFA announced the song on 15 May 2026, with NPR and Billboard reporting the partnership as a deliberate pairing of two artists with histories of bringing regional sounds — Shakira’s Latin pop and Burna Boy’s Afrobeats — onto global stages. For Shakira it is her second time anchoring a World Cup anthem after 2010’s “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” recorded for the South Africa tournament. For Burna Boy, who broke through internationally with “Last Last,” it marks his first FIFA-anointed tournament song.
Notable Moments
Shakira and Burna Boy performed “Dai Dai” together at the 2026 World Cup opening ceremony at Estadio Azteca on 11 June, sharing the bill with Andrea Bocelli, J Balvin and Korean artist EJAE, who became the first artist in World Cup history to perform Korean lyrics live at an opening ceremony when she joined Bocelli on “DNA,” the tournament’s secondary anthem. Mexico beat South Africa 2–0 in the opening match that followed, with Raúl Jiménez and Julián Quiñones scoring.
Cultural Impact
Billboard readers voted “Dai Dai” the best World Cup song of all time in a publication poll, and on Spotify the track surpassed 51 million streams within weeks of release. Coming 16 years after “Waka Waka,” it cemented Shakira’s position as the artist most associated with FIFA’s musical branding, while pairing her with an artist whose breakthrough — Afrobeats moving from regional to mainstream global radio — is one of the defining music-business stories of the late 2020s.
Variations & Related Tags
The song travels alongside hashtags for Shakira, #BurnaBoy, and other 2026 music-event tags including Eurovision winner #Bangaranga.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Dai
- https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/shakira-burna-boy-dai-dai-fifa-world-cup-song-1236247777/
- https://www.npr.org/2026/05/15/nx-s1-5823435/world-cup-official-song-shakira-burna-boy
- https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/shakira-burna-boy-perform-dai-dai-fifa-2026-world-cup-1235574123/
- https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/6/11/what-happened-and-who-performed-at-the-world-cup-2026-opening-ceremony
- https://www.wipo.int/en/web/wipo-magazine/articles/dai-dai-shakira-and-burna-boys-world-cup-song-and-its-ip-rights-99498