For two decades, the official World Cup song has been a predictable exercise in corporate songcraft—chants scrubbed clean, hooks assembled by committee. Then 2010’s “Waka Waka” showed what a tournament anthem could become when Shakira and Freshlyground pulled a Cameroonian marching rhythm into a global phenomenon. Now, FIFA has taken a sharper turn: for the first time, it has replaced the single anthem entirely with an 18-track double album, released June 5, ahead of the opening match between Mexico and South Africa at Estadio Azteca.
Produced by FIFA Sound and Sal XO, the project doesn’t simply sprinkle Afrobeats across its tracklist—it builds from it. Six of the eighteen songs carry Afrobeats voices in lead positions: Burna Boy closes the album with Shakira on “Dai Dai”; Rema opens it alongside LISA and Anitta on “Goals”; Davido links with Major Lazer and Nelly Furtado for “No Place Like Home”. Ayra Starr and Latto share “Show Me,” Angel, Fridayy and Stormzy appear on “Blessings,” and Tyla rides a trap-and-R&B groove with Future on “Game Time.”
The result is a collection that treats the genre not as regional color but as the structural center of a global pop conversation. The opening track alone triangulates a K-pop rapper, a Brazilian funk star, and a Nigerian Afrobeats prince without the stiffness of a marketing brief. The percussive vocabulary that has moved from Lagos to Toronto to Atlanta in recent years is everywhere, marking a shift from Afrobeats being invited to the party to hosting it.
