The kids, whose moves have earned them millions of followers on social media, will bring their energy to the FIFA World Cup Final at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A group of children from Kampala will stand at the centre of MetLife Stadium on July 19, and the woman beside them will look entirely at home. That image, equal parts improbable and inevitable, tells you almost everything about Shakira. When the 2026 World Cup final stages the first Super Bowl-style halftime show in the tournament’s history, she will headline it, and she will not arrive alone. She has invited Uganda’s Ghetto Kids to dance with her before the largest audience football can summon. The children have already appeared in the video for her song ‘Dai Dai’, the official anthem of the 2026 tournament.No artiste is more bound to the sound of the World Cup than Shakira, and the bond was forged in a single summer. In 2010, ‘Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)’ became the actual pulse of a tournament, a chant that travelled from Johannesburg stadiums into living rooms where nobody spoke Spanish and everybody knew the words. It is still among the best-selling World Cup songs ever recorded. What gave it weight was the grace of the gesture. She built it on an African melody, performed it with the South African band Freshlyground, and handed the moment back to the place that lent it.
