Shakira, Madonna and BTS to headline the first-ever World Cup final halftime show
Piquéd our interest
FIFA has officially decided the World Cup final now needs the same energy as the Super Bowl; apparently, the biggest football match on Earth wasn’t already doing enough numbers.
For the first time, the 2026 FIFA World Cup final will feature a full halftime show, with Shakira, Madonna and BTS all set to perform at MetLife Stadium on the 19th of July. Chris Martin has curated the event and will support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which aims to improve access to education and football programmes worldwide.
The announcement came via a social media clip featuring Martin alongside characters from Sesame Street and The Muppets, which feels pretty on-brand for a tournament increasingly being packaged less like a football competition and more like a global content event.
To be fair, the lineup is undeniably massive. Shakira and the World Cup are already deeply intertwined thanks to Waka Waka (This Time for Africa), which somehow still reappears every four years, whether you ask for it or not. She recently released a new World Cup anthem, “Dai Dai” with Burna Boy, so her inclusion here was practically inevitable.
Madonna, meanwhile, remains pop music’s final boss. The 67-year-old icon is gearing up for the release of Confessions II this summer and recently appeared during Sabrina Carpenter’s Coachella set, proving once again that she can still hijack the cultural conversation whenever she feels like it.
Then there’s BTS, whose return following military service has already become one of the biggest music stories of the year. Their comeback album, Arirang and subsequent world tour immediately sent fans into meltdown, and FIFA clearly knows exactly what it’s doing by tapping into one of the most devoted fanbases on the planet.
While FIFA is busy building what increasingly resembles a month-long entertainment megaplex with football attached, fans are becoming increasingly frustrated by the cost of actually attending any of it. Ticket prices for this tournament have been heavily criticised, particularly in the United States, where FIFA’s aggressive dynamic pricing strategy has seen some seats for the final rocket to more than $30,000. Resale tickets have drifted into absurd territory, with some listings hitting numbers that look more like mortgage deposits than football admissions.
Group-stage matches haven’t escaped either. Early ticket phases reportedly saw some seats for the US opener against Paraguay priced at around $1,200 before flights, accommodation or transport had even entered the equation. FIFA president Gianni Infantino has largely defended the pricing by pointing towards “market rates” in the American entertainment industry, which is one way of saying the World Cup is increasingly being treated like a luxury product.
Honestly, the halftime show announcement sort of confirms it. This is football repackaged as a blockbuster spectacle, complete with celebrity cameos, premium experiences and increasingly astronomical costs for ordinary fans. The football will still matter, obviously. But FIFA seems determined to make sure it’s only one part of the show, and guarantee that regular fans will be watching from home.
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