The 2026 FIFA World Cup has barely begun, but its official anthem “Dai Dai”, performed by Shakira and Burna Boy, has already been anointed the greatest tournament song of all time. A readers’ poll conducted by Billboard magazine placed the track first among official anthems dating back to 1990, securing 31.28 per cent of the vote. It edged out Shakira’s own “Waka Waka” (26.65 per cent) and Ricky Martin’s “La Copa de la Vida” (24.73 per cent). The accolade arrived as the opening ceremony at the Estadio Ciudad de México drew an estimated 1.2 billion viewers globally — nearly ten times the 125 million who watched Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, according to data cited by Polymarket FC. Viewed from the host nation, the spectacle laid bare football’s unmatched power to fuse sport and pop culture on a planetary scale.

The performance, however, was not without intrigue. As Shakira took the pitch alongside Burna Boy, fans across Latin America scrutinised her appearance: she wore dark glasses throughout the set, and many insisted she looked subtly altered. Mexican social media erupted with the hashtag #ShakiraDeTemu, spawning a viral conspiracy theory that a lookalike had been deployed. Hours before the show, Argentine television host Marley captured a brief, cordial encounter with the star outside the stadium — she was identically bespectacled and dressed down in blue and black, yet unmistakably gracious. The presence of her former partner Antonio de la Rúa at rehearsals, later reported by Colombian media, only deepened the swirl of fascination. The episode illustrated how, in the age of digital hyper-scrutiny, even a globally beloved figure can become the subject of playful doubt.

This mix of reverence and rumour underscores Shakira’s singular mythology. Commentators in Indonesia have likened her role at the World Cup to that of Mariah Carey at Christmas: a cultural marker whose arrival signals that the celebration has truly begun. Her 2010 “Waka Waka” remains the gold standard of football anthems, and the fact that “Dai Dai” now outranks it in fan polls points to a rare artist capable of competing with her own legacy. From Bogotá to Jakarta, the narrative is less about novelty than about the reaffirmation of a tradition that transcends continents.

The story does not end in Mexico City. Shakira is scheduled to perform again at the final in July, this time sharing the stage with Madonna and the K-pop group BTS — a line-up crafted to speak to every hemisphere at once. Analysts in London note that the 1.2 billion figure, even allowing for imprecise measurement, confirms that in a fragmented media landscape the World Cup remains one of the few ceremonies capable of assembling a truly global living room. For all the memes and fleeting doubts, the Colombian singer has once again become the indispensable voice of the beautiful game’s grandest party.