Every World Cup Song, Ranked

Imagine you’re given an impossible task: a billion-dollar multinational corporation asks you to write a song that will be heard by billions of people, all over the world. This song must not offend anyone.

The song cannot be challenging or boundary-pushing in any way. It must be easy to sing, memorable, international, and emotional. The lyrics must be easy to learn, and simple enough that anyone in any language could understand it. It should be able to get a stadium singing along together, but also must be able to get radio play.

This is the task put to World Cup song artists and their songwriting teams.

2026 is the 23rd FIFA World Cup, and since 1962 every World Cup has had at least one “official song” commissioned for the tournament by FIFA.

It gets a little confusing: sometimes there are songs. There are also sometimes “anthems.” Sometimes FIFA uses these interchangeably, and sometimes there is little if any distinction between what makes a “song” versus an “anthem.” For many years, FIFA would commission a song and an anthem. For the last several World Cups, FIFA has also commissioned an entire album of World Cup songs, a “soundtrack” for that year’s tournament.

This list will focus only on official FIFA-commissioned songs and anthems, and in years with a whole soundtrack I’ll focus on the lead single from the album. That means unofficial songs (like Shakira’s “La La La”) or songs from World Cup partners (like K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag”) will not be included.

I’ll be judging these songs on the following rubric:

1. Whether or not I like them

2. How interesting they are

3. How well they embody “World Cup-ness”

4. How well they represent the host country

May the best song win. Allez allez allez!

Official Song for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. I didn’t watch the 2022 World Cup, but based on music alone the vibes must have been rancid. FIFA decided to pump out SO MANY terrible songs for this year’s cup, and not a single one of them is memorable, good, or even catchy. It’s just all bad, all the way down. This might not even be the worst song from 2022. I really am just so tired of listening to the songs from this year.

This one sucks! Immediately forgettable. I initially had it ranked higher on the list but after a few re-listens I really just can’t get through it.

Official Anthem for the CA/MX/USA 2026 World Cup. Really hate this song. There’s this awful Andrea Bocelli autotune, a KPOP Demon Hunters cash-in attempt with the Ejae verse (she’s a great singer, but why?), and a Megan Thee Stallion rap verse.

The whole song is so disjointed, and it tries to force an earnestness and emotional catharsis that just isn’t earned. Hearing Bocelli start off the song by saying “and i say hey” feels beneath an artist of his stature and talent. David Guetta lends his signature sound, which makes the song feel like his COVID-era “stop racism now” broadcast. Actually, lots of songs on this list feel that way.

Official Song for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Just the worst tendencies of 2020s pop music, with vapid “we’re all together :)” lyrics. Nothing really to even say here.

Official Song for the Russia 2018 World Cup.

One Life Live It Up Cuz You Got One Life :)

Official Song for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Maybe instead of doing 10 songs for 2022, FIFA should’ve just paid for one that was good. The songs from 2022 are all massively overproduced and bloated with too many artists.

Official Anthem for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Lyrics in Arabic, Spanish, English, and French. The languages elevate it a bit, but it’s still from that terrible, terrible year of 2022.

Official Anthem for the South Africa 2010 World Cup.

C’mon man…

This song isn’t actually that bad, but it’s almost impossible to separate R. Kelly’s music from his decades of sex trafficking. He was an incredibly talented singer, and with the Soweto Spiritual Singers manages to elevate even the typical lifeless songwriting of a World Cup anthem. This song has some of the most inexplicable lyrics in all the songs on this list:

Now I can see the distance of your journey
And how you fought with all your might
You open your eyes to global warming
And through it all, you sacrificed your life

I’ve searched and searched, and cannot figure out what that third line is referencing.

I’ll give “Sign of a Victory” extra points for featuring the Soweto Spiritual Singers, although they’re not given very much to do. This choice situates the song in South Africa, and in a strong year for World Cup music (2010 also had Waka Waka and Wavin’ Flag) this song holds its own. Unfortunately, it will be forever tainted by the crimes of its singer.

Official Song for the CA/MX/USA 2026 World Cup. Another Shakira World Cup hit. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been humming this a little over the last few weeks. It’s catchy, but again falls into that trap of sounding like every pop song from the last 5 years, and being less interesting than those.

Official Anthem for the Germany 2006 World Cup. I’ll give this song this: it sounds anthemic. The beginning builds to what seems like it’ll be a cathartic release… and then about one minute in, this song loses an unbelievable amount of steam. Not bad but kind of boring.

Official Song for the Mexico 1986 World Cup. Not a good representation of Mexico. A little boring. Not a bad song, I guess, but not a good World Cup song.

Official Song for the Germany 2006 World Cup. This one is bad, but it’s bad in an interesting way. The song starts of strong with Toni Braxton’s beautiful voice solo over shimmery instrumentals. Almost feels like a Christmas song. Then Il Divo comes with a verse that sounds pretty nice…

But when they come together, it sounds like a car crash. Braxton’s clean singing mixed with Il Divo’s heavy operatic vibrato clashes awfully. They chose the strangest pairing of singers to pull this song off. Not to mention, there’s nothing German about this song!

I sort of hate this song, but the chorus is so loud and awful it’s almost good…

Official Anthem for the Brazil 2014 World Cup. It’s a lively party-like track and you can totally tell Avicii was involved. Santana plays these weird little guitar licks a couple times, but isn’t give very much to do.

Official Song for the Mexico 1970 World Cup. This might be the first one I’ll call “kind of good.” The song is somewhere between a 70s sitcom theme song and a broadcast jingle for a news station. I like the lyrics. “Football Mexico 70.” Straightforward. A great tempo change up in the middle. It’s groovy, baby!

Official Song for the Spain 1982 World Cup. Sung by the legendary Spanish opera singer Plácido Domingo, and boy is it a lively number. Its bouncy, and Domingo’s powerful, unwavering tenor voice drives the whole thing forward. The lyrics are about fans going to the stadium and enjoying a game of football. Apt!

Official Song for the Argentina 1978 World Cup. Maybe I’m ignorant, but nothing about this really feels like “Argentina.” That said, this instrumental composition by Ennio Morricone sounds like it could be on the soundtrack of the Rankin/Bass animated film “The Hobbit.” For that reason alone, this one lands at number 11.

Official Song for the Brazil 2014 World Cup. If you don’t like Pitbull as a youth, then you have no heart. But if you don’t like Pitbull as an adult, then you have no brain. Pitbull is the perfect artist for a World Cup song. His lyrics are so empty and inoffensive already (in a good way) that slightly adjusting them to be about World Cup adjacent topics is almost no task at all. This song is danceable, festive-feeling, and yet contains a strange melancholy… maybe its the wistful whistle?

Up next are my top ten.