Waka Waka lives on: Shakira and Uganda’s Ghetto Kids to headline football’s biggest final

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.