What’s the most beloved, most streamed World Cup song of all time? If your first guesses were Ricky Martin or Pitbull, you’re way off — the honor belongs to Shakira, whose 2010 anthem “Waka Waka (Song for Africa) handily beats them all. The track, recorded with the Cape Town, South Africa fusion band, Freshlyground, went to No. 1 in 15 countries and is one of the best-selling singles of all time, with over 15 million downloads worldwide. It’s on best World Cup song lists from sites as diverse as Billboard, MLS Soccer, Remezcla, and the Washington Post. And it keeps coming back each time there’s a World Cup, with replays and endurance driving YouTube views and pushing it to become Sharika’s second video to break two billion streams in 2018.
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Why does “Waka Waka” stand out? How did it get so popular and why do soccer fans keep coming back to it?
The first thing you need to know about World Cup anthems is that they are selected by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the organization behind the quadrennial event. Before the 2000s, the World Cup song frequently coordinated to its host country and featured an eclectic list of artists, from the Buenos Aires Municipal Symphony when Argentina hosted in 1978 to Daryl Hall (of Hall & Oates) when the U.S. hosted in 1994.
They began a shift to massive artists with global appeal, with Ricky Martin in 1998, who recorded the Official Song just as his international star was rising. Something about the success of Martin’s “Cup of Live” must have resonated, because after him, FIFA steered hard into choosing international stars, starting with the Europop singer Anastasia who worked with the-superproducer Glen Ballard (Alanis Morrissette, Dave Matthews Band) on the 2000 song, “Boom.” They tapped Ill Divo and Toni Braxton in 2006 and, of course, Shakira in 2010. Pitbull with Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Leitte took it in 2014, and in 2018 it was Nicky Jam on a track featuring Will Smith and Era Istrefi and produced by Diplo. FIFA’s aim: yielding an official anthem that players and the audience will dance and react to, with a performer to build a pre-tournament kick-off event around, dominating global charts from radio to streaming. They want to be everywhere during the World Cup and having an official song that’s well-liked helps them do it.
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