Norwegian singer Tius Luka became one of the unexpected faces of the 2026 FIFA World Cup opening celebrations after performing with Katy Perry before USA faced Paraguay.
The ceremony at SoFi Stadium had major pop names, bright production and the scale expected from a tournament spread across North America.
Amid the stadium noise, the youngest performer on stage gave the Los Angeles opener a more personal moment than the usual pre-match spectacle.
Tius Luka gave Katy Perry’s World Cup performance its youngest spotlight
Tius joined Perry on stage for “Wonder” during the protocol ceremony before the United States began their World Cup campaign against Paraguay.
The song already carried a connection between the two performers. Tius recorded his vocal part when he was five years old in 2021, and Perry later heard the recording before building the track into her sixth album.
That backstory gave the live performance more texture than a standard celebrity cameo. Perry’s set still had the scale of a World Cup production, but sharing “Wonder” with the young singer connected the performance to the voice that helped shape the track.
Tius is from Norway and has drawn attention online for his vocals, including covers of pop songs. His World Cup appearance now gives him a much larger global reference point, because the USA vs Paraguay ceremony was built for an audience far beyond the stadium.
Tius Luka made USA vs Paraguay ceremony feel less routine
The broader ceremony marked the United States’ first major World Cup night of 2026, with entertainment placed before the Group D opener in Los Angeles.
Perry was part of the tournament’s wider North American launch, which leaned on major artists and high-production staging across host-city events. Her segment with Tius stood out because it added a human contrast to the flags, lights and choreography around the match.
Reports from the event described the pair performing together in a lively setting, with Perry lifting Tius at the end of the number. The moment introduced him to viewers who may not have known the story behind his voice on “Wonder.”
For Tius, the performance was more than a cameo beside a global star. It gave a 10-year-old singer from Norway a place in the opening chapter of the United States’ 2026 World Cup summer.
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