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Spotify says Shakira’s World Cup-era music surge is drawing millions of new listeners
The Apex Times

THE APEX TIMES

Business/The Apex Times/Jul 7, 2:59 PM EDT

Spotify says Shakira’s World Cup-era music surge is drawing millions of new listeners

The streaming company points to sharp, tournament-linked gains for Shakira classics including “Waka Waka,” “La La La” and her latest World Cup-linked collaboration “Dai Dai,” alongside a broader jump in Shakira’s overall catalog streaming.

By The Apex Times Newsroom3 min readAI-assisted Apex article

Spotify’s data-backed look at the 2026 World Cup has a familiar face at the center of the story, Colombian pop star Shakira. In a new post timed to football’s summer tournament, Spotify argues that Shakira’s catalog is not just a recurring soundtrack for major matches, but a measurable engine for attracting fresh listeners while the competition is underway.

According to Spotify, “Hips Don’t Lie,” the song tied to Shakira’s 2006 World Cup performance in Berlin, is seeing streams up 61.6% during this year’s tournament. Spotify links the rise to tournament season, using the World Cup as a recurring cultural trigger for long-running hits.

Spotify’s post also highlights “Waka Waka,” released in 2010 around the tournament in South Africa. It says Spotify listeners drove a 246% increase in streams of “Waka Waka” the day after this year’s tournament began. Spotify adds that streams of the track have been up more than 128% since the contest started last month.

The company extends the pattern to Shakira’s later World Cup-linked catalog. It reports that “La La La” streams are up 124.2% this year, crediting continued momentum for a song released in 2014 that came with a music video featuring Lionel Messi and Neymar.

Spotify then ties the new wave of fan activity to Shakira’s most recent football-themed single, “Dai Dai,” a collaboration with Burna Boy released as the tournament moved to North America. Spotify says the song’s lyrics include English, Italian, Spanish, French and Japanese, and it features shoutouts to football figures including Pelé, David Beckham and Mohamed Salah, while the accompanying video includes Kylian Mbappé, Harry Kane and Christian Pulisic. Spotify says “Dai Dai” streams are up 136%.

Beyond single-track performance, Spotify frames the World Cup as a funnel into the rest of Shakira’s catalog. It says the artist’s overall streams are up 21.6% during the tournament so far. Spotify also reports that fans have created 35 million playlists globally that include one of her four football-related tracks, suggesting the music is being used as a recurring pre-match or in-match listening ritual.

Spotify adds that the audience is changing, not only expanding. It says 15% of people streaming “Waka Waka” over the past three months are new Shakira listeners. It also claims more than a quarter of “Waka Waka” listeners are under 25 years old, and that one in every seven people streaming the song today had never listened to Shakira before.

The post also places a corporate milestone next to the music numbers. Spotify says Shakira became the first female Latin artist to surpass 100 million monthly listeners on the platform. Spotify does not provide additional detail in the post beyond the milestone itself.

For readers trying to connect the dots between cultural attention and streaming outcomes, the key uncertainty is attribution. Spotify’s figures are presented as tournament-linked changes, but the company does not break down whether the swings were driven by World Cup viewership, marketing moments, social media trends, or playlist behavior versus broader underlying listening trends. Still, the consistency across multiple Shakira tracks, and the emphasis on new listeners, offers a clear message: for major global events, catalog back-catalog stimulation can be as important as new releases.

Why It Matters

  • Spotify is using the World Cup to show how music discovery can accelerate around major live events, turning classic catalog tracks into entry points for new listeners.
  • The reported “new listener” share suggests football-themed nostalgia is not limited to longtime fans, which can support long-term audience growth for artists whose catalogs span multiple World Cups.
  • Spotify’s emphasis on playlist volume and repeated track boosts underscores the importance of recommender systems and user-generated curation during global sports moments.
  • For media and telecom companies, the post illustrates how streaming platforms can position themselves as cultural distribution hubs tied to major tournaments, not just providers of audio on demand.

Sources

Key Facts

  • Spotify says “Hips Don’t Lie” streams are up 61.6% during the current World Cup.
  • Spotify reports “Waka Waka” streams increased 246% the day after this year’s tournament began, and are up more than 128% since the contest started last month.
  • Spotify says “La La La” streams are up 124.2% this year.
  • Spotify says “Dai Dai” (with Burna Boy) streams are up 136%.
  • Spotify reports Shakira-related playlists exist on Spotify at a global scale, with 35 million playlists including one of her four football tracks.
  • Spotify says Shakira’s overall catalog streams are up 21.6% during the tournament so far and that she became the first female Latin artist to surpass 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

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