The 2026 World Cup is just around the corner, and a series of songs has been released as the official theme songs. The biggest news came when it was announced that Shakira is heading the line as one of the artists releasing songs for the biggest football tournament. The expectation was high, knowing that Shakira has one of the most popular songs of the World Cup tournament since it started, with "Waka Waka" during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Do you still remember that song?
Of course, even those who weren't into football danced, enjoyed and still enjoy the song till today due to how sweet and entertaining it is.
This song, specially dedicated to Africa hosting the World Cup 2010, is full of nostalgia whenever it comes to play. It's full of magic in music and one can't just stop wondering how such a song was made that made it stick so hard that whenever a World Cup event is coming up, this song is among the songs one uses to catch the feelings of the moment even when an original song for that particular World Cup year has been released.
The YouTube views keep increasing because it's just timeless. It's currently at 4.5billion views and it's going to keep increasing because it's worth reliving every moment.
During the time I was in school, I had a hostel mate whose phone was very terrible and was always crying for lack of space while he had almost deleted everything on his phone. He has just one video on his phone and it's this song by Shakira, Waka Waka. He deleted everything and refused to delete the video because he loves it so much. This video is his go-to video whenever he has leisure time with his phone.
I really wish we could have an iconic song again like that in the future.
Just like what a lot of people have been saying, they say that songs these days are more of AI and that's a lack of originality and they hardly match up with what we had when AI was not in existence.
Thanks for reading.
Photo: Screenshot of YouTube video.