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Madonna, Shakira and BTS Set for First-Ever World Cup Final Halftime Show
Madonna, Shakira and BTS will perform at the first-ever World Cup final halftime show, set for July 19 at MetLife Stadium.
The FIFA World Cup final is getting a halftime show for the first time ever, and the roster is built around three names with very different eras of pop power: Madonna, Shakira and BTS.
Global Citizen announced early Thursday, May 14, that the trio will perform during the Sunday, July 19 match at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Billboard understands the performance will run 11 minutes, a tight window that feels telling for an event making history while trying not to overstate itself.
The announcement arrived through a social video that leaned hard into crossover spectacle, with Coldplay’s Chris Martin joined by Sesame Street’s Elmo and Cookie Monster, plus Kermit, Miss Piggie and other Muppets characters. BTS even appears via FaceTime in the clip.
Shakira was already in the World Cup conversation before this reveal. She had been announced as part of the tournament through “Dai Dai,” her official 2026 World Cup song with Burna Boy. It will be her second FIFA World Cup anthem after “Waka, Waka (This Time for Africa),” recorded for the 2010 tournament in South Africa. Her timing is especially crowded: Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour 2026 begins in June, and she has New Jersey and New York dates on July 14 and July 20, bracketing the final at MetLife.
Madonna, meanwhile, is heading into July with her own release cycle in motion. Confessions II, the sequel to her 2005 album Confessions on a Dance Floor, is due July 3. So far she has shared lead single “Bring Your Love,” her duet with Sabrina Carpenter, which they debuted live during Coachella weekend 2 last month, along with “I Feel So Free.”
BTS’ place on the bill follows a significant reset for the group after their military service hiatus. Their sixth studio album, ARIRANG, arrived March 20 and became their first project since the break. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and held that position for three consecutive weeks, their first multi-week run atop the chart. They launched the ARIRANG WORLD TOUR in Goyang, South Korea, last month before bringing it to the United States on April 25, with international dates booked through next March.
Behind the scenes, the halftime show is being curated by Global Citizen and Chris Martin, with the stated goal of raising money for the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund. The campaign is aimed at expanding access to education and football for children worldwide, with a $100 million target. More than $30 million has already been raised, and $1 from every ticket sold to World Cup matches will be donated during the tournament. Global Citizen and Martin were also behind the Club World Cup final halftime show last year, which featured Doja Cat, J Balvin and Tems.
The World Cup opening ceremonies already have their own pop-heavy lineup. Last week, FIFA said Katy Perry, Future, Tyla, LISA and Anitta are set to perform during the 2026 tournament’s opening events across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Perry will headline the opening ceremony in Los Angeles before the U.S. men’s national team plays Paraguay on June 12, while Future is also scheduled to perform at SoFi Stadium with DJ Sanjoy.
The halftime booking adds another layer of history to an event that has never included this kind of break before. It also places two artists with Super Bowl experience back in the same kind of high-pressure cultural spotlight: Madonna headlined the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show, while Shakira co-headlined in 2020 with Jennifer Lopez.
