South African star Tyla has teamed up with Future for Game Time, the official 2026 FIFA World Cup anthem, released on Friday, 29 May 2026.
The collaboration is a defining moment in Tyla’s rise. Since her Grammy-winning hit Water broke through international markets in 2023, the Johannesburg-born singer has been building toward exactly this kind of platform.
Being tapped to anchor the World Cup’s official soundtrack places her alongside artists such as Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, who became global brands in part through their World Cup moments.
Game Time: Tyla’s FIFA World Cup 2026 anthem explained
Game Time is the first single from the official 2026 FIFA World Cup album. The track pairs Tyla’s Afropop-inflected vocals with Future’s signature trap delivery, producing a record designed to move from stadium speakers to streaming playlists without losing anything in translation.
The FIFA World Cup album is expected to feature additional artist collaborations ahead of the tournament’s opening fixtures in June.
Tyla will perform at the World Cup opening ceremony in Los Angeles on 12 June 2026, sharing a stage with Katy Perry, Rema and LISA.
She will also appear at a pre-match concert in Mexico City on 11 June, ahead of the opening fixture between Mexico and South Africa’s national football team at the Estadio Azteca, a stadium with a capacity of over 87 000.
What comes next for Tyla in 2026
The timing of Game Time is not accidental. Tyla’s second studio album, A-POP, is scheduled for release on 24 July 2026, and the World Cup single launches the campaign with maximum visibility.
The three months between now and the album release position her for the kind of sustained chart presence that extends well beyond a single viral moment.
Her 2026 had already been building before Game Time arrived. At the American Music Awards earlier this month, she won Best Afrobeats Artist and took Social Song of the Year for Chanel.
The AMAs wins deepened the case for Tyla as the most commercially potent African artist of her generation, with a sound that crosses markets without diluting its identity.
Tyla is not the first South African artist to land a World Cup anthem feature, but she is the first to do so as an internationally established solo act with her own Grammy and a growing global fanbase.
The precedent her career is building, from a debut single that went viral to a World Cup anthem before her second album, positions her as the most significant SA cultural export of the decade so far.
With the World Cup running from 11 June to 19 July 2026, Game Time will soundtrack the entire group stage and a significant portion of the knockout rounds.
Tyla’s live performances during the tournament will extend the song’s life well beyond its release date.
