Madonna, BTS and Shakira headlined the first halftime show of a FIFA World Cup final on Sunday, sharing an 11-minute medley at New York New Jersey Stadium with Justin Bieber, Burna Boy and, somewhat improbably, the Muppets.
The show was curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin and was broadcast live during the championship match between Argentina and Spain, marking the first time in the tournament’s history that the final was interrupted by a musical performance.
Placing so many stars in eleven minutes meant that no one had much room.
Most artists had approximately two minutes on the court and, in Madonna’s case, considerably less.
The 67-year-old opened proceedings in a pre-recorded segment, riding a buggy through the tunnels beneath the stadium with Brazilian legends Ronaldo and Ronaldinho at the wheel, singing a reworked version of her 2000 hit. Music intertwined with pieces of hell disco and Danceteria.
By the time he appeared before the live crowd, the song was practically finished. She struck a pose and surrendered.
What followed was intense and fast.
Gustavo Dudamel, the outgoing conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted musicians from the New York Philharmonic and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela during Seven Nations Armyaccompanied by the Iranian violinist Bijan Mortazavi and the Muppets band, Electric Mayhem.
BTS then took to the field for a soccer-themed event. Dynamitecomplete with rewritten lyrics, before Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt appeared as Ted Lasso and Coach Beard to introduce the next act.
His replacement was Bieber, 32, who boiled it all down to a solo acoustic reading of All Hallelujah from last year Loot II.
Shakira closed the star turn with Burna Boy, the couple reunited after their appearance at the tournament’s opening ceremony in Mexico City last month to perform. dai daithe official song of the 2026 World Cup, backed by Uganda’s Ghetto Kids in bright yellow.
The finale belonged to more than fifty fifth graders from PS22 in Staten Island, who sang we dancean original Coldplay song written for the occasion, joined by the band, Australian singer Emmanuel Kelly and even more Muppets.
The duration of all this had been a topic of conversation for weeks, and the numbers explain why.
The performance itself came within a few seconds of its eleven-minute interval, but the half-time interval as a whole was 27 minutes and 22 seconds, the longest in World Cup history, and well beyond the maximum 15-minute interruption to which International Football Association Board rules entitle players.
Not everyone was convinced.
Wayne Rooney, acting as commentator for the bbcoffered a resounding verdict: “I like a lot of those artists, but I thought it was shit.”
Shakira, for her part, had been honest beforehand about how weak the whole thing still was.
“It’s going to be a shared halftime show,” he said. The night show of the capital with Jimmy Hill on July 8.
“It’s going to be pretty historic, five incredible artists. Well, four incredible artists plus me.”
He admitted that he was still working on how to make it feel different from his opening ceremony set, and that the running order was being determined almost until the last minute; He said, he was as curious as anyone about how it would turn out.
The day had started at a much calmer pace.
Post Malone headlined a pre-show that began 90 minutes before kickoff and lasted until Wow, Sunflower with Swae Lee and a new track, Chrome Heartbreakermocking his long overdue eternal hum album.
Streamer-turned-singer iShowSpeed performed in front of a projection of the New York skyline.
Robbie Williams brought out Nicole Scherzinger and Laura Pausini for Desirethe official FIFA anthem that he wrote, before escorting them hand in hand.
Jennifer Hudson sang the US national anthem with a live band and Tom Cruise addressed the crowd before kickoff.
“Football is a language that is spoken without words, a force that unites people,” he said.
The commercial and charitable aspect is substantial.
The halftime show supports the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which expands access to educational and sports programs for children from underserved communities.
By donating one dollar from every ticket sold in the tournament’s 104 games, the fund has already raised $60 million against a goal of $100 million.
On July 16, Global Citizen and FIFA named 31 beneficiaries in 18 countries.
The 80,000-capacity stadium was nearly full, with Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet, Pharrell, Matt Damon, Adrien Brody and Will Ferrell among the spectators.
Despite all the power on the field, the loudest noise of the afternoon came from the football.
