With fireworks lighting up the New York skyline, golden confetti swirling through the air and music blaring from the loudspeakers, for a brief moment, the FIFA World Cup 2026 will turn into a celebration of more than just football.
On 19 July, a Super Bowl-style half-time show will be held during this year’s World Cup final, with K-pop supergroup BTS, Madonna – the “Queen of Pop” – and Colombian star Shakira set to co-headline the programme.
The show, a first for a football World Cup final, will be held at the 82,500-capacity MetLife Stadium, which has previously hosted the NFL’s Super Bowl in 2014.
British rock band Coldplay’s lead singer, Chris Martin, will curate the half-time show, which will also raise money for the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, an initiative working to raise $100m for children worldwide.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said the show would bring together “music and football on the biggest stage in sport for a very special cause.”
While the length of the show is not known yet, the BBC reported on Thursday (14 May) that it is expected to be 11 minutes long.
A half-time show was also held at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup final between Chelsea and PSG at the same venue, featuring performances from North American rapper Doja Cat, Colombian singer J Balvin and others.
K-Pop sensation BTS, a seven-member boy band from the Republic of Korea, will be performing at the half-time show four years after one of their members, Jung Kook, performed his song ‘Dreamers’ at the 2022 World Cup’s opening ceremony in Al Khor, Qatar.
The news comes shortly after Shakira, who first performed at a World Cup two decades ago, released her second official anthem for the global showpiece: ‘”Dai Dai”.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup, the biggest-ever edition with 48 teams, will be held from 11 June to 19 July across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
READ MORE: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/bts-shakira-madonna-the-first-fifa-world-cup-final-half-time-show
