Hips Don’t Lie: Shakira to Light Up Spain vs Netherlands World Cup Final with Waka Waka Performance
The final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup will be a pulsating event, and even if it is like the dull goalless affair that was witnessed in 1994 between Italy and Brazil, one factor is set to shore up the night at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg. That factor is the Colombian singing sensation Shakira.
Shakira appeared on Saturday at the Soccer City Stadium for a light rehearsal before the big day, where she performs her song 'Waka Waka' before the FIFA World Cup final between the two European powerhouses Spain and the Netherlands.
‘Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)’ is the official anthem for the World Cup, and has been generally praised the world over for its ‘liveliness, power and dynamism’ (FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter.)
The superstar is set to perform the number with Freshlyground at the closing ceremony, which takes place before Sunday's title decider.
"Tomorrow I can't wait for the match, you know, I can't wait to be at the pitch singing Waka Waka, performing this song that has become a song of hope and a song of joy and a song of celebration and a song that represents integration - what this World Cup is about, I think. What South Africa has become a country that has truly become an example for the rest of the World, a country that has overcome so many barriers, a country where I find so much inspiration," Shakira said at a news conference in Johannesburg.
The singer, who took the world by storm with her dazzling number ‘Hips Don’t Lie’, is also a goodwill ambassador for the children's charity UNICEF, funded by the United Nations. She visited Soweto in Johannesburg last month to highlight the need to educate the young.
Ever since the tournament began, Shakira has kept herself involved in one task or the other in order to promote the message of peace and education for the poverty stricken children of Africa.
The singer went on about her love for Africa during the press conference, saying that she considers herself a ‘daughter of Africa’ and a student of its culture.
She claimed that the people and traditions of Africa have been her teacher, and it has influenced her life as well as her music.
She explained that Colombia’s coastal area, where she grew up, is very much an African country, and few of the towns in the country still speak African dialect.
The free spirited singer added that the people here needed to feel how united and how linked her country's sensitivity is to Africa, and the two are joined almost through an umbilical cord.
She concluded by saying that she has always felt that Africa as well as her Arabian roots have defined the person she is and rekindled the fire in her belly which has made her the rock star that she is.
Meanwhile, the closing ceremony is set to be a momentous occasion, with at least fifteen heads of state from the African continent, including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, expected to join South African President Jacob Zuma at the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg.
Similar to the musical concert and the opening ceremony at the start of the tournament, hundreds of South African and African musicians, dancers and performers are set to take part in the fanfare that will bring to an end the first ever football World Cup to be staged in the African continent.
On the field, though, the tournament was not much of a success for the African teams, as besides Ghana, none of them reached the second round of the tournament that ran for one month.
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