Most streamed FIFA World Cup song on Spotify

“Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” by Shakira (Colombia) and Freshlyground (South Africa), the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, had registered 1,074,458,645 streams on Spotify by 13 January 2025. This total is made up of the English-language (901,889,770) and Spanish-language (47,742,631) versions, mixes in English (58,454,300) and Spanish (61,449,918) and a live rendition (4,922,026) from Shakira’s 2011 album Live from Paris.

The English-language version alone makes “Waka Waka” the 970th most streamed track on Spotify overall, but its success is not limited to streaming services: the video has more than 4 billion views on YouTube, it has shifted 8.67 million digital copies since release, and, including physical copies and “equivalent album sales”, “Waka Waka” is reported to have surpassed 15 million units overall.

The official music video, featuring Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, has been viewed 4.1 billion times on YouTube – putting it in the Top 20 of the site’s all-time most popular videos.

Italy 1990 was the first FIFA World Cup to adopt an official song: “Un’estate italiana (Notti magiche)" by Edoardo Bennato and Gianna Nannini or “To Be Number One” by Giorgio Moroder Project. The honour has since been bestowed on Daryl Hall and Sounds of Blackness (“Gloryland”, USA 1994), Ricky Martin (“La Copa de la Vida (The Cup of Life)”, France 1998), Anastacia (“Boom”, South Korea/Japan 2002), Il Divo and Toni Braxton (“The Time of Our Lives”, Germany 2006), Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Leitte (“We Are One (Ole, Ola)”, Brazil 2014) and Nicky Jam, Will Smith and Era Istrefi (“Live It Up”, Russia 2018), while the official soundtrack for Qatar 2022 featured tracks from Nicki Minaj, Ozuna, Jung Kook and appearances from MENA (Middle East and North Africa) artists such as Myriam Fares, Rahma Riad and Wegz.

Comparably, the official FIFA World Cup songs for Brazil 2014 (333,804,341 streams for three versions of “We Are One”) and Russia 2018 (152,509,250 for the original version of “Live It Up”) have failed to hit the back of the net.

Non-FIFA songs adopted by tournaments, sponsors, teams or fans (for example, “We Are the Champions”, “Seven Nation Army”, “Nessun Dorma”, “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)”, “Colors”, “Yet to Come”, “Sweet Caroline”, “Wavin’ Flag”, “El Mundial”, “Hips Don’t Lie (Bamboo Mix)” and “Three Lions”, to name but a few) are excluded.