Few artists feel as synonymous with the FIFA World Cup as Wyclef Jean.
The three-time Grammy-winning hitmaker returned for his third major appearance at the global tournament, playing a pair of shows to help kick off this year’s festivities. On June 11, he teamed with Canadian folk singer-songwriter AHI to perform their new “Chosen” collaboration at the opening day of the FIFA Fan Festival™ in Toronto. Less than a week later (June 15), Jean jetted to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York, for a bombastic set celebrating his landmark 1997 LP, Wyclef Jean Presents The Carnival.
“The World Cup is an arena where we can all meet, and it’s all about the game,” Jean tells Billboard the morning after his performance (June 16). “None of the World Cup records I do are intentional; they just end up being World Cup songs. People who watch football are more into the songs that are not the big anthems, so it’s a really matter of making a song that is an anthem but doesn’t feel like one.”
“Chosen” joins Jean’s two other all-time World Cup anthems: “Hips Don’t Lie,” which he performed alongside fellow World Cup staple Shakira at the 2006 closing ceremony, and “Dar um Jeito,” the official 2014 FIFA World Cup anthem he crafted alongside Carlos Santana, Alexandre Pires and the late Avicii. For Jean, someone who’s “obsessed with football” and names Pelé as his “favorite player of all time,” “Chosen” naturally meets the energy of the moment — from Cape Verde’s shocker draw with Spain to this year being Haiti’s first World Cup appearance since their 1974 debut. “It’s the year of the underdog,” he proclaims.
For his NYC performance, Jean looked to the colors and characters of Haitian Carnival, bringing his culture to the world stage. Donning a New York Knicks jersey — in celebration of the team’s incredible 2026 NBA Finals victory the prior weekend — and flanked by stunning dancers dressed in eye-popping Carnival attire, Jean provided a history lesson that doubled as an all-out celebration. After beginning as a DJ set and bringing out North Carolina MC Rapsody (who appears on his forthcoming Clef Notes album) as a special guest, Jean eventually closed his performance by jumping into the crowd and performing in the middle of the euphoria.
“When we talk about the world stage, we mostly talk about Trinidadian Carnival and Brazilian Carnival; Haiti’s rarely mentioned,” Jean explains. “The most unique part about Haitian Carnival is the historical figures, like the Bawon Samdi. It’s literally Haiti’s history through the form of a celebration. You can pinpoint different tribes and events like the [1791-1804] Haitian Revolution.”
The Carnival theme of Monday night’s performance also previews next year’s 30th anniversary of Jean’s 1997 The Carnival LP. A career-shifting solo debut that earned three Grammy nominations and spawned a Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit in “Gone Till November” (No. 7), The Carnival blended all of the sounds that make Jean such a compelling artist, including hip-hop, jazz, konpa, Latin fusion, reggae, pop and neo-soul.
Three decades later, he plans to expand that album’s vision with Quantum Leap, a forthcoming series of seven albums across seven different genres to be released over the course of a single year. Due June 26, Clef Notes, a hip-hop LP, will be the first album in the series, featuring collaborations with Rapsody (“1994 – Boom Bap”), Lil Wayne and Andra Day (“1997 – GBTC”) and G Herbo (“2010 – Mr. October”). “Mr. October” arrived on May 29, marking a much-needed conversation between two generations of hip-hop artists that often butt heads. Self-produced and written alongside the Chicago-bred drill sensation, “Mr. October” marks the pair’s first proper collaboration, following Jean clearing a sample of his classic “911” and re-singing the hook for Herbo’s “Emergency” last year.
“I literally feel like hip-hop saved my life, so the idea of Clef Notes is to go back to the idea of the wordsmith,” says Jean. “It’s amazing to come from another country, learn these words and play with them in a Shakespearean form. Between Herbo’s storytelling and unorthodox style of rhyming, I knew he was the right choice if this was going to be a conversation between an unc and his nephew without us talking over each other. I felt like the culture needed these conversations to be done gracefully and in a way where both players could get in the paint. It starts with mutual respect.”
Clef Notes also boasts the Sinners-inspired “Devil’s a Lie,” which features emerging West Coast rapper Price and rising vocalist Kayla GC. A bit further down the tracklist, Jean flips the iconic Game of Thrones “winter is coming” tagline into a cheeky song of the same name.
The second album in the ambitious project is a jazz album dedicated to the late Quincy Jones and titled Q Theory. A reggae album, somehow his first, will follow, with imagery shot in Kingston, Jamaica. Jean returns to his father’s church for the fourth LP, which precedes a country album that found him joining forces with several Nashville musicians. For the sixth Quantum Leap album, he’s tapping “some pretty interesting features” for an R&B record, and the series’ final installment is titled Le Mardi Gras. The Carnival-inspired record will build on Jean’s Monday night performance — and career-long commitment to uplifting his Haiti — by blending konpa, Afrobeats and Latin music.
“Everything is authentic and already 80% done,” he says. “We have another chance to fuse cultures and build bridges that cover the past, present and future of these genres.”
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