The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has just announced that Madonna, Shakira and Kpop group BTS will jointly take on the role of main artists for the first half-time show in World Cup history.
This information was announced through a video featuring Chris Martin from Coldplay and famous characters such as Elmo, Cookie Monster, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and many other characters from Sesame Street and The Muppets. In the video, this group of characters even called FaceTime for BTS.
The World Cup final has long been the annual sporting event with the highest number of viewers in the world. The 2022 final attracted more than 500 million live viewers, far exceeding the Super Bowl LIX with the highest number of viewers in history with an average of 127.71 million viewers.
The halftime show of the 2026 World Cup final is organized by Global Citizen and Chris Martin, to raise funds for FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund - a fund that is aiming to raise 100 million USD to expand access to education and football for children around the world.
Last year, FIFA first experimented with a halftime entertainment format like Super Bowl when inviting Doja Cat, Tems and J Balvin to perform at the Club World Cup 2025 final.
According to Billboard, the match taking place on July 19 at MetLife Stadium (USA) will mark the first time in the history of the World Cup final that there is an official half-time performance stage. The program is expected to last about 11 minutes.
Although this is the first time the World Cup final has a halftime show, 2 of the performing artists have been the main artists of the previous Super Bowl halftime show: Madonna once performed mainly at Super Bowl XLVI, and Shakira performed mainly with Jennifer Lopez at Super Bowl LIV.
BTS has long had many activities associated with Global Citizen. The group participated in the Global Citizen LIVE event in 2021, while Jungkook performed at the Global Citizen Festival in 2023.
Jungkook previously also contributed his voice to the official soundtrack "Dreamers" of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and performed at the opening ceremony of the tournament.
Through the management company BigHit Music, BTS shared their feelings: "Standing on a meaningful stage that the whole world is watching is a great honor. We believe that music is a global language that conveys hope and harmony.
Being able to share that message with global audiences through this World Cup and contribute to expanding educational opportunities for children is even more meaningful.
Last week, FIFA also announced that Katy Perry, Future, Tyla, Lisa (Blackpink) and Anitta will perform at the 2026 World Cup opening ceremony in the US, Canada and Mexico.
