FIFA and Rolling Stone hosted a panel at FIFA House in New York on the cultural link between the World Cup and popular music, tracing how official tournament anthems have evolved from stadium curiosities into genuine global hits. Speakers included FIFA marketing director Marco Nazzari, Recording Academy and Grammys president Panos Panay, and Rodney Alejandro, Dean of Berklee College of Music's Music and Technology division, who discussed why football songs resonate so widely and what distinguishes a true crossover hit from a merely popular tournament tune.

The discussion traced the trend back to Ricky Martin's "La Copa de la Vida" for the 1998 France World Cup, credited as the first World Cup song to become a genuine chart-topper rather than just a stadium anthem, and highlighted Shakira's 2010 hit "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" as another example built around a simple, memorable hook. Panellists argued that football, music and food are among the few things capable of forging deep emotional connections across language barriers, and that a hit World Cup song needs a catchy, simple phrase that captures the emotion of the moment. The event coincided with an Ava Max performance marking the opening of FIFA House, a temporary New York venue run with Rolling Stone, the Grammys and Def Jam Recordings during World Cup Finals Week, which is also currently housing the World Cup trophy.