For many of us, the FIFA World Cup is the ultimate tradition, with fans donning the jerseys, sports group chats transform into football war rooms, and everyone starts chiming in with an opinion on a sport they only recently learned.
However, for Nora Fatehi, the 2026 FIFA World Cup was a different ball game altogether, as she performed on one of the world’s biggest football stages!
On June 12, 2026, Nora Fatehi, together with French performer Vegedream and producer Sanjoy, performed the song “Siir Siir” during the 2026 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony in Toronto.
The FIFA World Cup organization described the event as a celebration of the positive image of diversity of Canada, as well as the ability of football to unite.
Nora’s 2026 FIFA World Cup performance marked her second time at the event (flex or what); she had previously performed at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, alongside Balqees, Rahma Riad and Manal. In fact, she has sung some Hindi lines in this performance. Woah Nora, that’s some aura!
Naturally, we started our conversation by telling her how glad we were for this. Being such football lovers, the performance at the FIFA World Cup felt like a big victory for us. When we said this, Nora replied, “Oh, I love that.”
Then she talked about the real importance of the moment for her saying how it is important to be connected with the sport that is a huge cultural phenomenon, since not every performer gets to perform for such an event.
Recalling her feelings, Nora said: “I always use the word surreal. It’s like entering into a different zone.”
She explained that this is when a performer fully understands the importance of the location where they are. “It’s a platform that you know millions of people are gonna watch you and it is such a platform that not everybody has the opportunity to perform on,” she says.
According to Nora, this is not the first time she has experienced this kind of riddling sensation. Thanks to her appearance at the World Cup in 2022, she learned to look at nerves from a different angle. Although she has been performing for a long time now, which makes her used to being on stage, the feelings she experienced at the FIFA World Cup was like no other.
As for her, the meaning of this event expands with the realization of how much she has accomplished before getting there. She talks about how much time she devoted to work to be able to participate in such an iconic event in sports. Judging by the fact that her career started on a television show Bigg Boss back in 2016, the sequence of events looks very way too aura-licious.
We also discussed what it is like to be a member of such an exclusive club of performers, including Shakira & Jung Kook, who participated in the World Cup tour more than once!
Nora said that it is rather a crazy position to find herself in. Shakira has also been involved in various World Cup performances throughout the years including her oh-so-iconic “Waka Waka” stroke from 2010!
However, Nora Fatehi believes that being successful does not mean just getting on big stages. She wants other people to have that chance as well. Her #DanceWithNora project is an amazing example of finding and giving a chance to young dancers.
When we were talking about the reasons for giving a stage to newcomers, her answer was very simple! It is not just about wanting to make them better and giving them a chance to perform. It is more about believing that they have the right to be there. Nora emphasized the importance of making sure everyone who helped her gets a proper credit including at the end of her music videos since she knows that she has been supported by many people in her career so far.
That perspective aligns closely with the sentiments expressed by comedic star Vir Das in his quest to create room for voices of tomorrow; success does not have to mean pulling the ladder up behind you.
The conversation detoured into the murky waters of reality television. Nora Fatehi, who gained fame owing to her participation in Bigg Boss 9, has evolved in her career beyond reality television. At present, she highlighted, she has a much clearer objective; what new song she is going to record, what the next endeavor is, and so on.
There is no going back for her to the world of reality television, but she still feels that the industry continues being relevant and alluring for viewers who are continuously abandoning classic television channels.
Then came the topic of social media, the unavoidable final destination of every celebrity in today’s world of fame. Nora developed her ideas quite interestingly, noting that “Internet has different phases.” She sees the social media industry developing as a great discovery for people who would probably never reach the audience otherwise. However, people’s behavior has changed tremendously, and regulation has failed to keep up.
And now..make way for the most wholesome part of our conversation; when we spoke about India! Nora Fatehi moved to India at 22 to pursue her career, leaving home and taking a gamble that ultimately changed her life. She described India as another part of her home and spoke about the immense love she has received here.
“India gave me wings. It gave me wings to fly and to be where I am today.”
It is difficult to think of a better summary of her India journey.
We ended by talking about something every entertainment obsessive can relate to, old music videos! Nora believes there was a certain magic to the productions of earlier eras, when choreography, styling and production were given enormous attention and music videos often felt almost like mini-movies. She finds herself returning to artists like Michael Jackson, because those videos had an ambition that is sometimes missing from the speed-run content culture of today. (Also, she’s a huge Angelina Jolie fan).
And that is the Nora Fatehi story in a nutshell; she keeps moving forward, but she is not afraid to look back at the building blocks that got her here. From reality TV to Bollywood, from music videos to the FIFA World Cup, the stages have kept getting bigger, and Nora has clearly mastered Bunny’s “main rukna nahi chahta.”
And yes, she’s in Kunal Khemu’s “Madgaon Express 2”.