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Chris Martin Enlists Madonna, Shakira and BTS for FIFA’s First World Cup Final Halftime Show
Chris Martin has confirmed Madonna, Shakira and BTS will headline FIFA’s first World Cup Final Halftime Show on July 19.
Madonna, Shakira and BTS have been confirmed as the co-headliners for the first World Cup Final Halftime Show, a first for the tournament and a notable step toward making the final feel a little more like the Super Bowl. The show is set for Sunday July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Coldplay’s Chris Martin is overseeing the inaugural performance, and he delivered the announcement in a new social media video that leans into a bit of Muppet chaos. With help from Sesame Street’s Elmo and Cookie Monster, Martin confirmed Madonna and BTS, while The Muppets’ Kermit, Animal, Miss Piggy, and Statler & Waldorf were brought in to make the case for Shakira.
More specifics about the halftime show are still to come, but the performance is expected to run 11 minutes. Even at that length, it carries a lot of symbolic weight. FIFA has spent years trying to widen the cultural frame around its biggest matches, and this kind of crossover is the clearest sign yet of that strategy.
The halftime show will also support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, a major initiative aiming to raise $100million to expand access to education and football for children around the world. So far, the fund has raised more than $30million, and $1 from every ticket sold to FIFA World Cup 2026 matches will go toward it during the tournament.
Last week, FIFA and Global Citizen announced the first organisations to receive grants from the fund. More on the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund and the inaugural grantees can be found here, with application information for the second round of grants available here.
Martin’s involvement also fits a broader run of charity and cause-driven projects around Coldplay’s current era. Earlier this year, the band donated a series of concert photos for a Tiny Changes fundraiser, supporting the charity created in memory of late Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison, who died by suicide in 2018.
Not long before that, Coldplay released In-Between, a short film built around songs from Moon Music and focused on the refugee crisis. The project was made with the UK-based NGO Choose Love, which provides humanitarian aid and advocacy for refugees globally.
In July last year, Martin also appeared alongside Tems, Doja Cat, Emmanuel Kelly and J Balvin for a performance at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 match between Chelsea FC and Paris Saint-Germain.
Coldplay launched their sprawling Music Of The Spheres tour in March 2022, and it later became the highest-grossing rock tour ever, bringing in more than $1billion. The band have since confirmed new dates in 2027, extending a run that has already turned into one of the defining stadium operations of the decade.
