Rema, Burna Boy & the 2026 FIFA World Cup: How Nigerian Music Conquered the World's Biggest Stage
On June 12, 2026, a young man from Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria will walk onto the stage at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles — in front of a global television audience of over one billion people — and perform at the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup. His name is Divine Ikubor. The world knows him as Rema. And this is the story of how Nigerian music got here.
Think about what it took.
Think about every Afrobeats artist who played a small club in Lagos in the early 2000s with no major label, no international distribution, no streaming platform, and no guarantee that anyone outside Nigeria would ever hear their music. Think about D'Banj walking onto a BET Awards stage in 2012 while American audiences blinked in surprise and wondered where this sound had come from. Think about Wizkid's "One Dance" with Drake. Think about Burna Boy's Grammy acceptance speech. Think about Tems performing at the Grammy Awards.
Every one of those moments was a brick in a wall. And on June 12, 2026 — in front of the largest global television audience in the history of sport — that wall becomes a stadium.
Rema will headline the FIFA World Cup 2026 opening ceremony in Los Angeles alongside Katy Perry, Future, BLACKPINK's LISA, Anitta, and Tyla. He will also co-headline the official World Cup anthem "Goals" with LISA and Anitta — one of the most globally distributed songs of the entire tournament. And separately, Burna Boy — who was not selected for the opening ceremony lineup — responded by releasing "Dai Dai" with Colombian superstar Shakira as the tournament's central anthem, with Shakira confirmed to perform at the World Cup final halftime show on July 19.
Two of Nigeria's biggest music exports. Both connected to the world's most watched sporting event at the same time. In the same summer.
This is what a cultural conquest looks like — and Donvrichy Blog is here to tell the full story.
Rema at the World Cup: The Full Story
Who Is Rema?
Divine Ikubor — known professionally as Rema — was born on May 1, 2000, in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. He is 26 years old.
He signed to Mavin Records at just 18 and immediately became one of the most talked-about new voices in Afrobeats. His debut EP announced a genre-blending style that pulled from Afrobeats, trap, emo, and alternative sounds in ways that felt genuinely new — not a copy of what had come before, but something Rema was building from the ground up.
Then came "Calm Down."
Originally released in 2022, the remix featuring Selena Gomez became one of the most-streamed songs in the history of African music — a global crossover moment that introduced Rema to hundreds of millions of listeners who had never heard of Afrobeats. It was the first song by a Nigerian artist to surpass one billion streams on Spotify.
In 2025, Rema was named the only African honouree on the TIME100 Next list — a recognition of the 100 most influential people shaping the future of the world. Not the most influential African artists. The most influential people on the planet, period.
His selection for the World Cup opening ceremony is not a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. It is the natural next step in the trajectory of one of the fastest global rises in music history.
The Opening Ceremony — What to Expect
The 2026 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony in Los Angeles will take place at SoFi Stadium on June 12, 2026. Rema will perform alongside South Africa's Tyla, American rapper Future, pop icon Katy Perry, Brazilian singer Anitta, and BLACKPINK member LISA.
The ceremony will combine football, music and entertainment in what FIFA describes as a "historic summer" across the three host nations of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Katy Perry will headline the US portion ahead of the United States vs Paraguay match. BLACKPINK's LISA makes history as the first K-pop female solo artist to perform at a World Cup.
FIFA said the celebration would combine football, music and entertainment in what it described as a "historic summer" across the North American countries, adding that together the performers "will bring the sound of the FIFA World Cup 2026 to life for a global audience, delivering a high-energy spectacle that reflects the scale, ambition and cultural power of the tournament itself."
The ceremony will be produced with Balich Wonder Studio and will feature large-scale visuals, immersive storytelling, and live performances centred on the FIFA World Cup Trophy. The ceremony begins 90 minutes before kick-off, with fans encouraged to arrive early for pre-match entertainment.
For context on the scale: the FIFA World Cup final in 2022 was watched by over 1.5 billion people globally — making it the most-watched broadcast in human history. The opening ceremony of the 2026 edition, hosted across three countries for the first time ever with a massive international entertainment lineup, will be one of the most watched broadcasts on the planet. Rema will be on that stage.
The Official World Cup Anthem — "Goals"
FIFA has officially unveiled a new World Cup anthem featuring Nigerian music sensation Rema. The Afrobeats superstar joins Thai rapper LISA and Brazilian singer Anitta on the song titled "Goals," one of the headline releases from the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Album.
The Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Album is released under the FIFA Sound label in coordination with Universal Music.
"Goals" — a collaboration between three artists from three different continents representing three different musical traditions — is exactly the kind of record that the World Cup is designed to create. Rema brings Afrobeats. LISA brings K-pop and Southeast Asia. Anitta brings Brazilian funk and Latin pop. The result is a song that speaks to football fans across cultures simultaneously.
For Rema personally, co-writing and co-performing the official World Cup anthem is a statement of global musical citizenship. He is not a guest appearance on someone else's record. He is a co-headliner — an equal creative voice on the flagship song of the tournament.
Burna Boy and Shakira: "Dai Dai" — The Story Behind the Anthem
While Rema secured the opening ceremony and the "Goals" co-headlining spot, Burna Boy — characteristically — found his own path to the World Cup's biggest moment.
Burna Boy released "Dai Dai" — the official anthem for the 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament — featuring Colombian superstar Shakira. The song was released on May 14, 2026.
Burna Boy was notably absent from FIFA's lineup of performers for the 2026 World Cup opening ceremony despite his huge global popularity. The Grammy-winning Nigerian singer later teamed up with Shakira on the football-inspired anthem titled "Dai Dai," keeping Afrobeats firmly connected to the global showpiece.
The pairing of Burna Boy and Shakira deserves its own moment of appreciation.
Shakira is not just a famous singer. She is perhaps the single most iconic World Cup musical presence in history — her "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" from the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa remains one of the most globally recognised songs ever recorded. Billions of people associate her voice with football. Billions associate "Waka Waka" with the joy of the World Cup.
And in 2026, she chose Burna Boy as her partner for the tournament's central anthem.
That is not a PR decision. That is a musical recognition — that Burna Boy's voice, his energy, his specific Afrobeats weight, is the right sound to sit beside hers in this moment. Shakira does not need a Nigerian feature to be relevant at a World Cup. She chose it because it was right.
"Dai Dai" — released May 14 — combines Shakira's signature Latin pop energy with Burna Boy's distinctly Nigerian bass and vocal swagger. Shakira will also perform at the 2026 World Cup Final in New Jersey on July 19, where she is expected to share the stage with Ugandan dance group Ghetto Kids.
Whether Burna Boy joins her at the final remains to be confirmed — but the record they made together will be heard in every stadium, every fan zone, and every living room watching the World Cup from June 11 to July 19.
The Broader African Picture: Tyla, Ghetto Kids, and the Continent's Moment
Nigeria is the headline — but the 2026 FIFA World Cup is a moment for the entire African continent in music.
Tyla is the only artist appearing at two World Cup ceremonies — performing in Mexico City on June 11 before South Africa's opening match, and joining Rema and the full lineup at the Los Angeles ceremony on June 12.
Ugandan dance group Ghetto Kids are set to share the stage with Shakira during the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final in New Jersey on July 19. The Ghetto Kids — a group of young dancers from Kampala who became a global social media phenomenon — representing Uganda at the World Cup final is a moment of genuine emotional power for African audiences worldwide.
The 2026 final on July 19 at New York New Jersey Stadium introduces the first official halftime show in World Cup history. In the first ever World Cup halftime show, African music and dance will be present — through Shakira and Burna Boy's anthem and the Ghetto Kids' performance. That is a legacy moment.
The continent that gave the world rhythm, that built the foundations of jazz, blues, and hip-hop, that in the last decade produced the genre that is currently more globally streamed than any other — Africa — will be everywhere at football's biggest event.
How We Got Here: The Afrobeats Timeline That Built This Moment
To fully appreciate what Rema standing on that Los Angeles stage means, you need to understand how far Nigerian music has travelled to get there.
2004–2010: The Foundation D'Banj, P-Square, 2Face Idibia, and the original wave of Nigerian pop artists built a pan-African audience. The music was massive from Lagos to Accra to Nairobi — but the world largely had not heard it yet.
2012: The BET Moment D'Banj's "Oliver Twist" became a genuine UK chart hit and introduced British audiences to Nigerian music in a mainstream way. His BET Awards appearance marked the first serious moment of international institutional recognition.
2016: Wizkid Goes Global Wizkid's feature on Drake's "One Dance" became the most streamed song in the world. For the first time, a Nigerian artist was not "crossing over" — he was already there. The conversation changed permanently.
2019–2022: Burna Boy Builds the Bridge Burna Boy's Grammy nomination (2020), Grammy win (2021, Best Global Music Album for "Twice as Tall"), and relentless international touring turned Afrobeats from a genre that needed explaining to one that needed no introduction.
2022–2023: Tems and the New Wave Tems' feature on Drake's "Fountains," her Grammy win, her Rolling Loud headline sets, and her sustained presence in the US and UK market represented a new generation carrying the flag.
2022–2024: Rema and "Calm Down" "Calm Down" became the most streamed African song ever on Spotify. Rema became TIME100 Next. At 24 years old, he was already operating at the highest levels of global music.
2026: The World Cup Rema at the opening ceremony. "Goals" as the co-headlining World Cup anthem. Burna Boy's "Dai Dai" with Shakira as the tournament's central record. Nigerian music on the world's biggest stage, not as a guest — as an equal.
Every step on that timeline was necessary. Every artist who came before Rema and Burna Boy built something they are now standing on. This moment belongs to the entire tradition.
What This Means for Nigerian Music Fans
For Nigerian music fans — inside Nigeria and in the diaspora — the 2026 FIFA World Cup is a moment of genuine, earned pride.
Not the kind of pride that comes from being surprised when the world notices you. The kind that comes from having done the work, built the audience, and arrived at the biggest stage in the world on your own terms.
When Rema walks out at SoFi Stadium on June 12, performing in front of over one billion people, he will be carrying something larger than his own career. He will be carrying Benin City. He will be carrying Mavin Records. He will be carrying every artist who ever performed in a Lagos club with no guarantee anyone outside Nigeria would ever hear them. He will be carrying the entire Afrobeats tradition.
And when "Dai Dai" plays in football stadiums across three continents from June 11 to July 19 — Burna Boy's voice ringing out alongside Shakira's across 16 host cities and billions of living rooms — it will be a reminder that the genre born in Nigeria now belongs to the world.
This is not a moment. This is an arrival.
How to Watch the 2026 FIFA World Cup Opening Ceremony
For Nigerian fans who want to watch Rema perform live on June 12:
Date: Friday, June 12, 2026 Venue: SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles, California, USA Time: Ceremony begins 90 minutes before kick-off (expected around 8:00 PM local time / 4:00 AM WAT June 13) Where to Watch:
- DSTV — SuperSport channels (available across Nigeria)
- FIFA+ streaming platform — free online at plus.fifa.com
- YouTube — FIFA's official YouTube channel typically live-streams opening ceremonies
- CANAL+ — for subscribers in West Africa
Set your alarm. This is a moment you will want to see live. 🇳🇬
Quick Facts — Nigeria's World Cup Music Moment
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Rema performing at | US Opening Ceremony, SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles |
| Date | June 12, 2026 |
| Co-performers | Katy Perry, Future, BLACKPINK's LISA, Anitta, Tyla |
| Official anthem | "Goals" — Rema, LISA, Anitta |
| Burna Boy's contribution | "Dai Dai" with Shakira — official tournament anthem |
| Other African performers | Tyla (Mexico + LA ceremonies), Ghetto Kids (World Cup Final halftime) |
| World Cup final | July 19, 2026, New York New Jersey Stadium |
| First ever World Cup halftime show | July 19 — Shakira headlines |
| Tournament dates | June 11 – July 19, 2026 |
| Host countries | USA, Canada, Mexico |
| Total matches | 104 across 16 cities |
Final Thoughts
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be remembered as the tournament where African music arrived on the world's biggest stage — not as a supporting act, not as a token inclusion, but as a genuine co-headlining force.
Rema on the opening ceremony stage. Burna Boy's voice on the tournament anthem. Tyla performing at two ceremonies. The Ghetto Kids at the halftime show. Afrobeats in every stadium on every continent for six weeks.
For a genre that was dismissed, underestimated, and overlooked for decades — this is justice.
For the Nigerian artists who built this moment brick by brick over twenty years — from D'Banj to Wizkid to Burna Boy to Tems to Rema — this is the reward.
And for every Nigerian fan who stayed up at night watching World Cups, cheering for Super Eagles teams while wondering when Nigerian music would get the recognition it deserved on the global football stage —
June 12, 2026.
That is your answer.
Are you watching the opening ceremony? Drop a comment below — and share this with every Nigerian music fan you know. This is a moment worth celebrating together. 🇳🇬🎤
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