Rolling Stone’s look back at FIFA World Cup songs since 1990 lands on one clear winner for staying power: Shakira’s Waka Waka (This Time for Africa). The 2010 track, built on Afro-Colombian elements and South African music styles, became the most streamed FIFA World Cup song in 2024 and also earned a Guinness World Record that year.
That matters now because World Cup music has become part of the event itself, not just a soundtrack around it, and the 2026 World Cup is drawing attention back to the songs that helped define earlier tournaments. The same roundup points to the long memory of the format, with official FIFA songs and anthems from 1990 onward still being measured against Shakira’s song, which has outlasted many of the entries that once filled stadiums and then slipped from view.
Some of those earlier tracks were built to be memorable from the start. Daryl Hall sang over Gloryland for the 1994 World Cup in the U.S., and the song drew on The Battle Hymn of the Republic. In 2006, Il Divo and Toni Braxton recorded a ballad-like anthem for the tournament in Germany. A decade later, Carlos Santana, Wyclef Jean, Avicii and Alexandre Pires were involved in one World Cup track, while Pitbull, J-Lo and Claudia Leitte were tied to another after the success of Shakira’s song.
The strange thing about World Cup anthems is that the ones meant to sound biggest are not always the ones that last. Some became instant fixtures, while others faded so quickly that even a broad survey has to work to pull them back into view. One exception keeps standing above the rest: Shakira’s Waka Waka. It arrived in 2010, crossed musical borders cleanly, and by 2024 it had become the benchmark for how a World Cup song can keep growing long after the tournament ends.
That is also why FIFA started commissioning official songs in the first place. The format proved it could create a global hook of its own, after non-contracted music such as El Rock del Mundial showed how quickly a tournament tune could spread. Los Ramblers released that song in 1962 before the first game in Chile, and it became an instant hit in South America. It still sits among the best-selling records in Chilean music history. The next official song may arrive with the 2026 World Cup, but the standard it will be judged against is already set.
