FIFA announced its first-ever halftime show for the World Cup Final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, turning the tournament’s closing act into a branded spectacle built around global celebrity, corporate production, and a fundraising arm tied to the same institution. BTS, Madonna and Shakira are set to co-headline, with Coldplay's Chris Martin curating the performance.
Who Gets the Spotlight
The people on the field are not the only ones being staged for the cameras. FIFA said the halftime show will feature BTS, Madonna and Shakira, with Chris Martin handling curation. Shakira is also set to release the official song of the World Cup, "Dai Dai," later Thursday. The arrangement places a handful of globally marketed performers at the center of an event that already concentrates attention, money, and control in FIFA’s hands.
The show will also raise funds for the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which is dedicated to improving access to quality education and football for children around the world. That fund is presented as a charitable add-on to the tournament’s machinery, with FIFA using the World Cup stage to attach a humanitarian gloss to its own production.
The Apparatus Expands
FIFA said the opening ceremony in Los Angeles on June 12 will feature music acts including Katy Perry, Future, Anitta, LISA, Rema and Tyla, and that the ceremony will begin 90 minutes before the start of the U.S. match. The timing makes the match itself part of a larger entertainment package, with the sporting event folded into a schedule designed by the institution running it.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement that the opening ceremony in Los Angeles represents "the extraordinary scale of what the FIFA World Cup 2026 will become" and that "the lineup of artists reflects the cultural diversity of the United States and the vibrancy of its many diasporas, highlighting the nation’s rich influence on music, entertainment and pop culture, while showcasing the power of music to bring people together across the country."
That statement frames the tournament as a celebration of diversity and unity, while the actual structure remains top-down: FIFA decides the lineup, the timing, the venues, and the broadcast spectacle. FOX broadcasts the entire tournament, with opening matches kicking off on June 11 in Mexico.
What People Are Being Sold
The opening match in Toronto will feature performances by Alanis Morissette, Alessia Cara, Elyanna, Jessie Reyez, Michael Bublé, Nora Fatehi, Sanjoy, Vegedream and William Prince. In Mexico, opening ceremony headliners include Alejandro Fernández, Belinda, Danny Ocean, J Balvin, Lila Downs, Los Ángeles Azules, Maná and Tyla. The tournament will feature over 100 matches in 16 cities hosting in three countries over more than a month, culminating in a finale in New Jersey.
The scale is enormous, but so is the concentration of control. A single governing body is packaging the event across three countries, with broadcast rights, celebrity appearances, and ceremonial programming all feeding the same machine.
The opening matches begin June 11 in Mexico, where El Tri hosts South Africa in Mexico City and South Korea takes on Croatia in Guadalajara. The next day, Canada plays Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto in Group B, and the U.S. Men’s National Team plays its first match against Paraguay in Los Angeles before heading to Seattle to play Australia on June 19 and closing out the group stage against Turkey back in Los Angeles on June 25.
Prior performers at World Cup finals include Carlos Santana and Wycleaf Jean at the 2014 tournament in Brazil, Will Smith at the 2018 finale in Russia, and Davido, Aisha and Ozuna at the 2022 closing ceremony in Qatar. The new halftime show extends that same logic: the world’s biggest sporting event becomes another stage for managed spectacle, with the institution at the center deciding who gets seen, who gets heard, and what gets called celebration.