The Billboard Hot 100 has a new African record holder. Burna Boy’s ninth entry, ‘Dai Dai’ with Shakira, has pushed him past Tems to become the African artist with the most appearances in the chart’s history. The song that broke the record is now playing in stadiums across North America as the official anthem of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Tems previously held the record with eight entries, and the two had been co-record holders, but Burna Boy now stands alone at the top.
The Song That Broke the Record
‘Dai Dai’ is the official anthem of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, released on May 15. The collaboration blends Burna Boy’s Afrobeats sensibility with Shakira’s reggaeton influence into a track built around a message of unity, which is a fitting choice for the largest football tournament in history. 
The numbers behind it reflect just how far the song has traveled. It reached number one in Colombia, peaked at number five on the Spotify Global chart, accumulated hundreds of millions of views on YouTube, and landed at number 75 on the Billboard Hot 100 upon debut. For Burna Boy, it was entry number nine. For Afrobeats, it was another moment that would have seemed impossible a decade ago.
How He Got Here: The Full Timeline
Burna Boy’s Hot 100 journey began in 2021 with an appearance on Justin Bieber’s ‘Loved by You.’ The following year, he made his solo breakthrough when ‘Last Last’ peaked at number 44, still his highest-charting entry on the Hot 100 to date.
2023 added two more entries, which are ‘Sittin’ On Top of the World’ with 21 Savage and ‘Talibans II’ with Byron Messia. Between 2024 and early 2026, he continued building; ‘Just Like Me,’ ‘We Pray’ with Coldplay, and ‘WGFT’ with Gunna all made their mark.
In February 2026, ‘Only You’ with J. Cole brought him to eight entries, tying with Tems and simultaneously making him the first African artist to chart on the Hot 100 across six consecutive years, from 2021 through 2026. Four months later, ‘Dai Dai’ pushed him one step further and into a record of his own.
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What the Numbers Say Beyond the Hot 100
Burna Boy has accumulated more than 25 entries on the UK Singles Chart, consistent showings on the Canadian Hot 100, billions of Spotify streams, and is on course for another billion-stream year in 2026.
These are not the numbers of an artist who crossed over once and rode the wave but are the numbers of someone who has been building a sustained, compounding presence across global markets for half a decade, which is a different and harder thing entirely.
SEE ALSO: Shakira & Burna Boy Team Up on “Dai Dai” -See The Best World Cup Songs Made by Africans
What It Means for Afrobeats
The conversation around African artists and global charts used to center on breaking through. Burna Boy’s record reframes that entirely. Nine Hot 100 entries across six consecutive years is not a breakthrough, but rather it is the new normal.
Afrobeats has moved past entering the global mainstream; it now holds its place there. As ‘Dai Dai’ plays in stadiums across the United States, Canada, and Mexico during the World Cup, the genre isn’t simply represented. It is defining the sound of the world’s biggest stage.
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