FIFA taps Anitta, Katy Perry, Lisa, Rema, Tyla

FIFA has actually announced more than the five names in the prompt — and the bigger twist is that this is not one single tournament kickoff show. The U.S. opening ceremony for the 2026 men’s World Cup is set to feature Katy Perry, Future, Anitta, LISA, Rema and Tyla at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday, June 12. FIFA is also framing the whole thing as a continent-wide launch, with separate opening ceremonies across the United States, Mexico and Canada. ### So what got announced? The concrete news is FIFA’s U.S. ceremony lineup. Katy Perry is in it. So are Future, Anitta, LISA, Rema and Tyla. FIFA’s own announcement says Los Angeles will host the U.S. opening celebration on June 12, 2026, and that more globally known artists are still to come. (fifa.com) ### Why does Future matter here? Because his inclusion changes the shape of the story. The early social chatter around this leaned hard on the global-pop angle — Anitta from Brazil, LISA from K-pop, Rema and Tyla from Afrobeats and amapiano-linked pop, Katy Perry as mainstream U.S. star power. But FIFA’s confirmed lineup also includes Future, which makes the bill feel more like a broad U.S.-hosted entertainment package than a neat “five-woman global-pop supergroup” rollout. (fifa.com) ### Is this the official tournament opener? Yes for the U.S. ceremony, but not for the entire host region in the old one-city sense. FIFA says 2026 will have three opening ceremonies — one in each host country. That is new. The tournament is being staged by the United States, Canada and Mexico, so FIFA is clearly trying to make the opening feel trinational rather than forcing everything into one symbolic curtain-raiser. (fifa.com) ### Why is FIFA doing it this way? Basically, scale. The 2026 World Cup is the first men’s tournament with 48 teams, and it spans three countries. A single pre-match show would be too small for what FIFA wants this edition to represent. So the entertainment strategy mirrors the tournament format — bigger footprint, more regions, more languages, more fan bases, more chances to turn the opening into a global TV event. (fifa.com) ### Why these artists? Because they map neatly onto the audience FIFA wants. Katy Perry brings familiar U.S. stadium-pop reach. Anitta brings Brazilian and Latin pop pull. LISA brings a huge K-pop audience. Rema and Tyla bring African pop momentum that has become impossible for global events to ignore. And Future roots the U.S. show in American rap, not just crossover pop. It is a playlist built for worldwide distribution, not just the people inside the stadium. (fifa.com) ### Is there music beyond the ceremony? Yes — and that helps explain the bigger rollout. FIFA has already launched an official 2026 album hub through FIFA Sound, with “Lighter” by Jelly Roll and Carín León positioned as the first single. That suggests the opening ceremony is one piece of a broader music-and-marketing program rather than a one-night booking spree. (fifa.com) ### What’s the real takeaway? The real story is not just that FIFA booked Anitta, Katy Perry, LISA, Rema and Tyla. It is that FIFA is treating the 2026 World Cup like a continent-sized entertainment franchise from day one — with Los Angeles as one launch point, not the whole launch. That fits the scale of a 48-team, three-country tournament, and it tells you how aggressively FIFA wants to package this World Cup as a culture event, not just a football one. (fifa.com 1) (fifa.com 2)