A girl from Russia performed with Shakira at the World Cup final

Ten-year-old Russian Yesenia Mikheeva, who lives in the United States, danced with singer Shakira during the break of the final of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This was announced on July 19 by her parents on Instagram (owned by Meta, recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation).

Shakira, along with 10-year-old Yesenia and other children, appeared on the field of MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The girl's parents, professional choreographers, submitted an application for an online competition, where their daughter attracted the artist's attention. Shakira noted Mikheeva's talent and invited her to perform with her at the 2026 World Cup finals.

"Russian blood, Brazilian fire and the 10-year-old girl who conquered Shakira. At the age of 7, she made America's Got Talent stand up. At 10, she received a "yes" from the very queen of Latin American music. Shakira personally chose this fragile girl, seeing the wild energy and talent in her eyes!" wrote producer Yana Rudkovskaya on the Telegram channel.

Mikheeva was born in Moscow, but now lives in Florida, where her parents, professional choreographers Alexander and Marina, moved a few years ago. The girl has been dancing since early childhood. At the age of seven, she became the youngest semi-finalist on America's Got Talent. In the spring, she attracted Shakira's attention by posting on social media a dance to the World Cup anthem "Dai Dai" in a Brazilian national team T-shirt. The singer reposted the video and invited Yesenia to perform with her at the final of the tournament.

After the performance, the girl's Instagram account garnered more than 233,000 likes and over 800 comments, and the total audience grew to 1.9 million subscribers.

From Yamal to Velikiye: the main intrigues of the 2026 World Cup finals

Argentina and Spain will compete not only for the World Cup, but also for a place in the history of world football.

On July 19, the Spanish national team defeated the Argentine team in the World Cup final. Striker Ferran Torres scored in the 106th minute as part of the winning team. He was assisted by forward Niko Williams. During the match, the Spaniards also had two goals cancelled out.

During the halftime show of the World Cup finals, a banner was unfurled on the field, which had words in many languages of the world, including Russian. In particular, the words "love" and "explore" were present in Russian. The headliners of the show were singers Madonna and Shakira, as well as the band BTS and singer Justin Bieber.