A crowd of thousands celebrated into the night in Johannesburg on Thursday as music stars from around the world got South Africa's World Cup party off to a musical start.
The show, which was broadcast live around the world, started with President Jacob Zuma telling the crowd that Africa had shown that it was capable of "handling any matter of the world".
"We would like to thank Fifa for the decision to bring the World Cup for the first time to the continent of Africa," said Zuma, who was accompanied on the stage at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto by Fifa president Sepp Blatter.
The concert, which began shortly after 8pm, started with a performance of Grazing in the Grass by the Jazz artist Hugh Masekela.
The Black Eyed Peas, US artist, Alicia Keys and the later the Somalian performer K'naan all brought the flag waving crowd to its feet with their performances.
Colombian singer Shakira, wearing in flowing white dress, had the crowd dancing and singing "Waka, waka, it's time for Africa" with her performance of the World Cup theme song "Waka Waka".
Shortly after the end of the show cameras flashed away at a man was who had been handcuffed by the police after allegedly attempting to steal a laptop from journalists in the stadium's media centre.
"We caught him red-handed," a young woman said at the scene. "He had two laptops in his bag."
