Shakira Celebrated Her World Cup Moment With a Star-Studded Night at Barclays Center
Fresh off her historic performance at the 2026 FIFA World Cup final, Shakira didn’t take much time to let the energy fade. On July 20, she returned to the stage for the first New York date of the U.S. leg of her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour, billed in-house as the “World Cup Edition.” The show at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center turned into something closer to a stadium afterparty — Tyla, Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy all appeared as surprise guests, and the evening ended with dancing that spanned reggaetón, afrobeats and 2000s Latin pop.
From the Final to the Catwalk
Spain’s 1–0 victory over Argentina crowned the 2026 World Cup, and Shakira referenced the moment early in the set. “What a day yesterday at the finals!” she told the crowd. She returned immediately to the hour-and-a-half-long party, opening her second-night stand at Barclays Center with dancers and a house-light moment that made the arena feel like a club.
The show leaned on staples such as “Estoy Aquí,” “La Bicicleta” and “La Tortura,” but the guest appearances defined the night. Tyla came out first — the fitting collab, since both artists dominated global charts this summer — for a run-through of “Hips Don’t Lie,” the 2006 Hot 100 No. 1 that reconnected the Colombian superstar with her early-career dance-pop identity. Tyla kept pace on a catwalk, matching the choreography step for step in a turquoise fringed dress.
Ed Sheeran appeared later for a stripped-back performance of “Underneath Your Clothes,” changing the room’s energy with an acoustic guitar and close harmonies.
Burna Boy Closed the Show With the Song of the Summer
The evening’s most relevant moment came near the end, when Burna Boy walked out to perform “Dai Dai” — the official song of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and, by Billboard’s own chart data, the biggest song on the planet at this writing. The single tops both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, which means the Barclays Center show doubled as a victory lap for a track that dominated the social and streaming conversation through the tournament.
The cross-genre chemistry between Shakira and Burna Boy, blending Latin pop, reggaetón, dance-pop and afrobeats, was one of the clearest signs that the World Cup’s musical footprint outlasted the tournament itself. When the duo was done, Shakira capped the night with her own classic “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” from the 2010 World Cup — an unmistakable callback to the career-long overlap between her music and global soccer culture.
Why It Matters
Shakira’s World Cup halftime show was already historic; the Barclays Center shows proved she still commands stadium-sized attention in the immediate aftermath. This was the first major post-tournament stand from a headliner whose career has periodically revived around global sporting events. The Night also showed how Billboard’s summer chart dominance — Tyla’s global rise, Burna Boy’s historic Dai Dai run — can land in live settings without losing momentum.
