A new FIFA World Cup 2026 playlist, released on Spotify by uDiscover ahead of the tournament’s opening on 11 June 2026, pulls together official anthems, fan favourites, and decades of football-adjacent pop into a single sprawling listen. It is, on the surface, a compilation exercise. But the sequence of choices reveals something about how global sport now tries to hold together its contradictions: the communal and the commercial, the nostalgic and the aggressively contemporary.
The FIFA World Cup 2026 Playlist, Track by Track
The playlist opens with ‘Goals’, a collaboration between BLACKPINK’s Lisa, Nigerian Afrobeats star Rema, and Brazilian pop star Anitta. According to FIFA, the track blends Latin pop, K-pop and Afrobeats into what it describes as a high-energy celebration, and was produced by GRAMMY Award-winning producer Cirkut. It was released via SALXCO UAM and Def Jam Recordings. FIFA has also confirmed that ‘Goals’ will be performed at the Opening Ceremony in Los Angeles, giving the track a function beyond streaming: it will be the first thing a global stadium audience hears when the tournament begins.
The choice of three artists from three continents is not incidental. Rema framed it plainly: ‘Three continents, one track, bringing all our sounds together like this is a big moment for music on the world stage.’ Anitta reached further back: ‘My connection to the World Cup is deeply emotional. I’m Brazilian, after all, of course I have wonderful memories tied to the tournament. It’s incredibly special to now contribute to its history, collaborating with LISA and Rema on “Goals”! I’m very grateful for this opportunity.’
‘Goals’ arrived as the fourth single from the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Album, following ‘Por Ella’ by Los Ángeles Azules and Belinda, ‘Echo’ by Daddy Yankee and Shenseea, and ‘Illuminate’ by Jessie Reyez and Elyanna. The project has been rolling out in stages ahead of the tournament, with each release drawing on regional sounds from a different part of the world. It is a curatorial philosophy that reads less like a record label decision and more like a diplomatic one.
When Football Anthems Draw From Deeper Catalogue
The rest of the FIFA World Cup 2026 playlist is where things get genuinely interesting, and occasionally strange. The Black Eyed Peas’ ‘Pump It’, OneRepublic’s ‘I Lived’, and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ ‘Learning to Fly’ sit alongside Evelyn Knight and The Stardusters’ ‘Lucky, Lucky, Lucky’, a song that predates organised football broadcasting by some considerable distance. The logic is broadly associative: these are tracks that carry a feeling of collective momentum, regardless of whether they were written with a stadium in mind.
The most pointed selection is The Beatles’ ‘Come Together’, which recently served as the soundtrack to England’s squad reveal for the tournament. The clip circulated widely, and there is something quietly apt about it: a song built around a bass line that sounds like a slow march, repurposed for a moment of national anticipation. It also demonstrates how quickly a piece of music can acquire new context. ‘Come Together’ is not a football song. After the squad announcement, it briefly became one.
This is, in many ways, what playlists of this kind are for. The FIFA World Cup 2026 playlist, as described by uDiscover, covers ‘the best football anthems, World Cup vibes, Qatar 2022 hits, United 2026 energy’ and draws on official releases from 2010 to the present tournament. That framing is deliberately wide. It accommodates Afrobeats and K-pop alongside classic rock and Tin Pan Alley pop, treating the World Cup less as a single sonic moment and more as a recurring occasion that different eras of music have each tried, in their own way, to soundtrack.
The full playlist is available now on Spotify, with ‘Goals’ leading the sequence ahead of the Opening Ceremony in Los Angeles on 11 June 2026.
Heart
Haha
Love
Wow
Yay
Sad
Poop
Angry
