Undated photograph provided by Juan Botero showing Fher Olvera (left), lead singer of the band Maná, during a concert in Mexico City, Mexico. EFE/Juan Botero/EDITORIAL USE ONLY
Mexico City, May 27 (EFE) – With more than four decades of experience on stage, Fher Olvera says that Maná’s participation in the opening of the 2026 World Cup represents an “unprecedented moment” in the group’s career and hopes that this event, followed by billions of people, will serve to “promote peace” in the face of wars and international conflicts.
“It’s going to be a very Mexican, very pre-Hispanic spectacle (…) with incredible choreography and other amazing things. I don’t think an event like this has ever been done in Mexico, in this way and on this scale, on the field. It will be a delight for Mexicans and the whole world,” Olvera told EFE in a conversation about this sporting event that will be broadcast to more than 200 countries.
Mexico will be one of the host countries for the 2026 World Cup along with the United States and Canada, and will host the opening match on June 11 at the Mexico City Stadium, where Maná will perform a new two-minute song as part of the show organized by FIFA.
“We ‘manás’ are so excited about an event of this magnitude in our country that it’s like a dream. We feel like we’re flying,” confesses the artist, who is part of the lineup invited by FIFA, along with Alejandro Fernández, J Balvin, Los Ángeles Azules, and Belinda.
A message of peace
As a fan of football and the Mexican National Team, this is not the first time that Olvera has dedicated his music to the passion for football, since in 2018 he composed ‘El gladiador mexicano’, an anthem of support for Mexico during the World Cup held in Russia.
Almost ten years later, the singer believes that the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted by Mexico, the United States and Canada, represents an opportunity to “promote peace through sport”, because “lately there have been many wars”, such as in Palestine or the mistreatment of the Ukrainian people.
“All of that is wrong, so football champions all these causes. Here there is unity for the same idea, the same ideology of having fun and healing the heart and spirit,” he emphasizes.
In his opinion, art and sport are “the most beautiful things that exist in planetary culture,” since they integrate humanity beyond nationalities and allow society to move away from the idea that we are only in this world “to beat each other up.”
Defend Spanish
In a context marked by polarization, the guitarist celebrates that music is that bridge to “increasingly reclaim Latin culture in the United States and in the world,” as the Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny did in his past performance at Super Bowl LX, since “that’s what we all need at the end of the day.”
Although he acknowledges that the struggle to defend Latin roots and Spanish goes back much further, for this reason, groups like Maná never agreed to make songs in English or “fusions in ‘Spanglish'”.
“We never had the need to reach that market. We have always been happy to share the stories of Latin America and Hispanic America through our songs,” says Olvera, who recently collaborated with Dua Lipa to perform a completely Spanish version of ‘Oye Mi Amor’ (1992), a classic of the band included on the album ‘Dua Lipa: Live from Mexico’.
Fher Olvera is counting down the days until the World Cup opening match between Mexico and South Africa, where Lila Downs, Danny Ocean and Tyla will also perform hours earlier.
“Nothing is missing now,” he says, although he admits that his heart, 15 days before the meeting, beats as strongly as if he were behind the scenes, about to give the concert of his life.
