Colombian pop star Shakira performed "Dai Dai" with Nigerian Afrobeats artist Burna Boy at the 2026 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony on June 11 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, before roughly 87,000 fans. She wore dark sunglasses through the entire set. Her outfit — yellow top, white shorts, platform sneakers — was sportier than her usual stage presence. Within hours, body double theories were spreading on X, TikTok, and Reddit, with fans comparing her footwork, height, and hair to older footage. Fans named a Venezuelan tribute artist — Rebeca Maiellano, known online as ShakiBecca — as the alleged stand-in. She has more than 500,000 followers and had been working in Mexico around the tournament. Neither Shakira's team nor FIFA addressed the body double claim directly.

1. Fans Had a Suspect and a Name

The theory had just enough specifics to spread.

Shakira wore sunglasses for the entire performance — and the crowd noticed. Fans accustomed to her precision and energy from past World Cup appearances found the June 11 set halting, the footwork tentative, the presence subdued. "Look how she misses the step when she sings 'Dai Dai.' That's a double," one widely-shared post read. "Shakira from Temu," read another. "Either she was in a car wreck on the way to the stadium or something happened."

The conspiracy had a name. Rebeca Maiellano — ShakiBecca — has performed as Shakira for 20 years and has 500,000-plus followers. She was in Mexico around the tournament. Threads assembling side-by-side comparisons of her and the World Cup performer circulated on TikTok and Reddit within hours of the ceremony.

2. But the Scar Kills the Theory

The physical evidence against it is hard to dismiss.

Shakira's forehead scar appears in every frame from the ceremony. The same scar, in the same location, shows up in Associated Press photographs from a May 2026 event in New York. Debunkers matched the mark across high-resolution broadcast close-ups; fans who ran the comparison concluded it was her. "She has the same chickenpox scar," one wrote.

The rest of the evidence pointed the same direction. A video of Burna Boy with Shakira in the stadium hallways — without sunglasses — circulated after the ceremony. Shakira posted behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage in the days before the show matching the live staging, costuming, and choreography exactly. She was photographed with other performers at the event. As Vice's Lauren Boisvert noted, Shakira had two Los Angeles concerts scheduled two days later — she wouldn't use a body double for a ceremony only to appear on stage herself 48 hours after.

3. Still, the Performance Was Genuinely Flat

That's the part no one disputes.

Whatever the conspiracy claimed, the performance itself was a disappointment. The National's review was pointed: "the extended Afrobeats section sucked the energy out of the performance, leaving Shakira and Burna Boy haplessly filling the space with limp choreography." Fans who remembered her 2010 World Cup performance were comparing June 11 against an almost impossible standard — but even critics who lowered their expectations found the show listless. Critics called the song polished but studio-built, not made for a stadium.

FIFA opened a separate investigation into ShakiBecca — and it had nothing to do with the body double claim. The investigation is about whether Maiellano used protected World Cup logos and branding in commercial tribute performances without authorization. FIFA opened it less than a week after the body double theories went viral, which made the two look connected. They weren't.

Where This Lands

The scar evidence is solid: Shakira was there. The conspiracy came from a performance that genuinely underdelivered, from an artist whose best work set a bar this one didn't clear. The theory was wrong about what happened, but the performance genuinely underdelivered.

Sources