Shakira, Maná and a surprise appearance by Salma Hayek turned the World Cup opening ceremony in Mexico City into a starrier-than-expected pregame show on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Belinda and J Balvin also performed before Mexico met South Africa in a Group A match.
The crowd searching for who is performing at the World Cup 2026 got a quick answer in the capital, where the opening ceremony brought together some of the most recognizable names in Latin music and film before the first whistle. Hayek was the unexpected face on the pitch, while Shakira and Maná provided the biggest names in the opening run of entertainment.
Andrea Bocelli was also cited as lighting up the ceremony in Mexico City, adding another global name to an event that leaned hard on star power. The lineup was not presented with the same neat order everywhere, and the emphasis shifted depending on which part of the ceremony was being described, but the result was the same: the World Cup opened in Mexico City with a roster built to command attention far beyond the stadium.
That mattered on Thursday because the ceremony came immediately before a Group A match that Mexico would go on to win 2-0 over South Africa. For fans in the stadium and viewers trying to keep track of the day’s programming, the answer was clear enough by kickoff: Shakira, Maná, Belinda, J Balvin and Hayek had already set the tone before the football began.
