The Official FIFA World Cup 2026™ Album has hip-hop, Afrobeats, K-pop, country, and arena EDM covered. But it also has something that no previous World Cup album has ever had quite like this: a proper Mexican cumbia track, played by the people who defined the genre, sung by one of Mexico’s biggest pop voices.
That track is “Por Ella” — and it’s one of the most culturally specific, proudly rooted releases on an album that’s otherwise doing everything it can to be all things to all continents.
What Is “Por Ella”?
“Por Ella” is the second single from the Official FIFA World Cup 2026™ Album, released on April 17, 2026, through SALXCO Records / OCESA Seitrack and Def Jam Recordings. The track runs 3 minutes and 1 second, is sung entirely in Spanish, and was executive produced by Tainy — the multi-Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican producer behind some of the biggest Latin records of the past decade, including collaborations with Bad Bunny, J Balvin, and Rosalía.
The song is available now on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music.
It is produced with rich, horn-driven arrangements and rhythms rooted in traditional cumbia sonidera — the working-class Mexico City style of cumbia that Los Ángeles Azules pioneered — reimagined through a contemporary production lens that makes it accessible to a global tournament audience without sanding away what makes it distinctly Mexican.
What Does “Por Ella” Mean?
The title translates directly to “For Her” — and the “her” in question is not a person. It’s football itself, specifically the World Cup trophy personified as the ultimate object of desire.
The lyrics open with the line “De México para el mundo” — “from Mexico to the world” — an immediate statement of identity and pride. From there, the song builds around the emotion every fan feels watching their country compete: the crest on the chest, the goal in the 90th minute, a stadium on its feet.
The chorus translates roughly to: “What I would give for her, for her, so she would shine here on my chest just like the stars.” The trophy as a love interest. Competition as devotion. The metaphor is distinctly Latin — and distinctly cumbia, a genre whose romantic imagery has always run parallel to its dance-floor energy.
It is “Por Ella” in the same way football fans everywhere say they’d give anything for their team to win — just set to horns, accordions, and a Tainy-produced beat built for an Azteca crowd.
Who Are Los Ángeles Azules?
If you don’t know Los Ángeles Azules, that is a gap worth filling before the World Cup ends — because this is one of the most remarkable stories in Latin music.
The group was formed in 1976 in the neighborhood of Iztapalapa, on the outskirts of Mexico City, by the Mejía Avante family — a group of siblings who began performing at local parties as children. The core lineup includes Elías, Alfredo, José Hilario, Jorge, Cristina, and Guadalupe Mejía Avante, supported by an additional 11 musicians. They are, at their heart, a family band from a working-class neighborhood who have been doing the same thing for nearly five decades — and somehow ended up on the FIFA World Cup album.
Their genre is cumbia sonidera — a style that blends traditional Colombian cumbia rhythms with romantic ranchera melodies, orchestral elements, and electronic synthesizers, creating a sound that simultaneously feels rooted in the 1950s and completely alive in the present. Their music has always belonged to the street, to the quinceañera, to the neighborhood party — and that working-class identity is something they have never let go of regardless of how big they have become.
And they have become very big. Their 2013 comeback album Como Te Voy A Olvidar — recorded with a new generation of Latin indie musicians including Lila Downs, Natalia Lafourcade, and Toy Selectah — introduced them to a global audience that had no idea they existed. It worked. Their track “Nunca Es Suficiente” with Natalia Lafourcade has amassed over 661 million Spotify streams. Their song “Cómo Te Voy a Olvidar” has crossed 516 million Spotify streams. Combined across their catalog, their hits have accumulated over 3 billion streams on streaming platforms.
In 2018, they became the first cumbia group ever to perform at Coachella. They have received the Billboard Lifetime Achievement Award and are Grammy-nominated. They have sold out Mexico City’s Auditorio Nacional five nights in a row. And they still rep Iztapalapa — exactly the same neighborhood where it all started.
Who Is Belinda?
Belinda Peregrín Schüll — known professionally simply as Belinda — was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1989, and moved to Mexico City at age four. She started her career at 10 years old as a child actress in the Mexican telenovela Amigos x Siempre, and by 2003, when she was barely 14, had released her debut solo album Belinda, which sold over 1.1 million copies worldwide and hit No. 6 on the Billboard Top Latin Pop Albums chart.
Over the following two decades, she built a career that has crossed telenovelas, pop albums, Disney movies (The Cheetah Girls 2), talent show judging, and multiple genre reinventions — from teen pop to rock to EDM to reggaetón to, most recently, corridos tumbados. Her 2024 single “Cactus” marked her entry into the corridos era — what she calls her “Beli Bélica” phase — and performed strongly on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart.
But the most important number in her catalog for this conversation is one specific YouTube view count. Her 2019 collaboration with Los Ángeles Azules on “Amor a Primera Vista” — also featuring Lalo Ebratt and Horacio Palencia — has crossed 919 million views on YouTube, making it one of the most-watched cumbia videos in the platform’s history. That track peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Regional Mexican Airplay chart and earned Belinda her first-ever Billboard top 10 hit — not from a pop song, but from a cumbia.
“Por Ella” is the reunion. Same two artists, same genre foundation — but this time on the biggest musical stage football has ever built.
The Tainy Factor
Production matters on this track in a way that deserves its own section.
Tainy — born Josue A. Declet in Puerto Rico — is one of the most important producers in Latin music right now. His fingerprints are on some of the biggest Spanish-language records of the past ten years: he co-produced Bad Bunny’s multi-album run, worked extensively with J Balvin, and contributed to Rosalía’s crossover breakthrough. His ability to take a genre and make it feel contemporary without stripping it of its roots is exactly what “Por Ella” required.
The result is a track where the cumbia DNA — the horn stabs, the accordion lines, the rhythmic shuffle — is unmistakably present, but the production scale feels appropriate for a tournament anthem. It doesn’t sound like Tainy trying to make cumbia something it isn’t. It sounds like cumbia given the room it deserves.
The Live Performance: Opening Ceremony, Mexico City
“Por Ella” didn’t just exist as a studio recording. Los Ángeles Azules and Belinda performed it live at the FIFA World Cup 2026 Opening Ceremony at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on June 11, 2026 — the same night Shakira and Burna Boy performed “Dai Dai” and the tournament officially kicked off with Mexico facing South Africa.
The performance was part of a star-studded opening ceremony lineup that also included Maná, J Balvin, Danny Ocean, and Lila Downs. Los Ángeles Azules and Belinda brought the cumbia set — the moment in the ceremony that rooted the entire evening in specifically Mexican musical identity before the broader global lineup took over.
It was, as Belinda herself described it, a full-circle moment. “In my family, the FIFA World Cup has always been a massive celebration,” she said. “This track is a tribute to all Mexicans. My hope is that it becomes an anthem that gets everyone dancing and having a great time, because it truly comes from the heart.”
Los Ángeles Azules echoed the sentiment: “It fills us with pride and joy to represent Mexico in the FIFA World Cup 2026. We are sure that every football-loving heart will dance and enjoy it as much as we did while creating it.”
Why “Por Ella” Matters on This Album
The Official FIFA World Cup 2026™ Album was always going to represent the United States, Mexico, and Canada — the three co-host nations — but representing Mexico through music specifically is a different kind of responsibility. A lot of Latin music on this album skews toward reggaetón, urban, and trap sounds that have global streaming weight but don’t necessarily root themselves in any one national tradition.
“Por Ella” does the opposite. It is unambiguously, proudly Mexican — in the language it’s sung in, in the genre it inhabits, in the neighborhood it comes from. And that specificity is what gives it a different kind of weight on the album compared to the more genre-blended tracks around it.
It also confirms something that Belinda and Los Ángeles Azules proved back in 2019 with “Amor a Primera Vista”: cumbia and pop can share a track without either one feeling compromised. “Por Ella” is the bigger stage version of that same argument — and this time, the whole world is watching.
For the full album context, see our complete Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Album tracklist guide. And if you want to know where to find every track across platforms, our complete streaming guide has it all.
To see how “Por Ella” compares to the album’s other Latin entries, check our breakdowns of “Dai Dai” by Shakira and Burna Boy and “Three Nations” by 21 Savage, Natanael Cano and French Montana.
FAQs
What does “Por Ella” mean in English? “Por Ella” translates to “For Her” — with “her” referring to the FIFA World Cup trophy, personified as the ultimate object of desire and competition.
When was “Por Ella” released? April 17, 2026. It was the second single released from the Official FIFA World Cup 2026™ Album, following “Lighter” by Jelly Roll and Carín León.
Who produced “Por Ella”? The track was executive produced by Tainy, the multi-Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican producer known for his work with Bad Bunny, J Balvin, and Rosalía.
Have Los Ángeles Azules and Belinda worked together before? Yes. Their 2019 collaboration “Amor a Primera Vista” — also featuring Lalo Ebratt and Horacio Palencia — has crossed 919 million YouTube views and was Belinda’s first Billboard top 10 hit.
What genre is “Por Ella”? Mexican cumbia sonidera — the working-class Mexico City style of cumbia pioneered by Los Ángeles Azules, blending traditional cumbia rhythms with horn arrangements and contemporary production.
Where can I stream “Por Ella”? On Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, and Deezer — part of the Official FIFA World Cup 2026™ Album under FIFA Sound and SALXCO Records.