{"id":921290,"date":"2026-07-20T18:17:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/20\/fifa-halftime-blink-and-you-missed-madonna-bts-justin-bieber-shakira\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T18:17:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:17:02","slug":"fifa-halftime-blink-and-you-missed-madonna-bts-justin-bieber-shakira","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/20\/fifa-halftime-blink-and-you-missed-madonna-bts-justin-bieber-shakira\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA Halftime: Blink and You Missed Madonna, BTS, Justin Bieber, Shakira"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soccer <\/p>\n

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\n\tThe FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show provided an answer to the burning question of how you fit Madonna<\/a>, BTS<\/a>, Justin Bieber<\/a>, Shakira<\/a>, Burna Boy, Gustavo Dudamel, Chris Martin and the Muppets into a single 11-minute segment: as fleetingly as possible.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough there were reports that the halftime extravaganza would be allowed to go over the allotted 11 minutes, it indeed came in at just a few seconds over that mark, which meant that none of the superstars involved got more than about two minutes of time on the field\u2026 or mostly off it, in the case of Madonna.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe segment opened with an apparently pre-taped segment in which Madonna and passengers Ronaldinho and Ronaldo Naz\u00e1rio\u00a0were carried along on a jeep through tunnels, apparently in the bowels of New York New Jersey Stadium \u2014 a journey that lasted long enough that it seemed in doubt whether she would ever make an appearance out on the field. She did, but by that time, her performance of \u201cMusic\u201d was over, with nothing left to do in sight of the live fans but strike a pose before the action moved on to Dudamel and the Muppets.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tPopular on Variety\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n\tThe transition at the two-minute mark found the outgoing LA Phil conductor leading string sections from New York and Venezuela in supporting a Muppet band\u2019s rendition of the White Stripes\u2019 \u201cSeven Nation Army.\u201d The next minute was given over to leaving viewers wondering why puppets rather than Jack White himself were squeezed into the mega-medley to deliver the biggest riff in rock or sportsdom, before BTS took over at the three-minute point.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tRM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook of BTS perform during the Topps Final Halftime Show in the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final match in East Rutherford, New Jersey. <\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe K-pop superstars got in a minute and 40 seconds\u2019 worth of \u201cDynamite,\u201d complete with some altered football lyrics, before they were succeeded by an unbilled appearance by Jason Sudeikis, briefly reprising his role as Ted Lasso. His entree into the World Cup: coaching Justin Bieber, just he went onto the field with an acoustic guitar to sing a fully solo rendition of \u201cEverything Hallelujah,\u201d from his \u201cSwag II\u201d album, sans a band (or laptop).<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tJustin Bieber performs during the Topps Final Halftime Show the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final match in East Rutherford, New Jersey. <\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tShakira performs during the Topps Final Halftime Show the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final match in East Rutherford, New Jersey. <\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tWho would be \u201cheadliner\u201d in this lineup? Not surprisingly, it was Shakira, joined by Burna Boy, singing \u201cDai Dai,\u201d the FIFA anthem that has \u201cHere in this place you belong\u201d as its brotherhood-of-men-and-feet sentiment. Then, with a minute and a half to go, it was back to the Muppets, now joined by the Webby Award-winning PS22 Chorus and one much taller fellow in the chorus line, Chris Martin, who\u2019d curated the halftime. \u201cWe believe in love,\u201d they sang, a sentiment that came in second here only to a belief in brevity, with a more-is-better approach to making the final\u2019s historic first halftime show as much of a cluster-FIFA as possible.<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier in the day, there was no hurry at all when Post Malone got to sing not just one but three numbers during the opening ceremony \u2014 including a partial version of \u201cChrome Heartbreaker,\u201d teasing his upcoming, long-delayed \u201cEternal Buzz\u201d album. Also getting an unusual amount of time, at least compared to the halftime superstars, was streamer\/influencer-turned-singer ISHowSpeed, reprising his 2022 World Cup anthem, the prosaically titled \u201cWorld Cup.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tJennifer Hudson delivered the U.S. national anthem, giving the day its most honest jolt of genuine, un-lip-synched lung power. Robbie Williams, Nicole Scherzinger and Laura Pausini teamed up for another official FIFA theme song, \u201cDesire,\u201d which included Williams singing the line \u201cLove is the law,\u201d a directive that will no doubt hold true unless the president makes a call to get it overturned.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tNicole Scherzinger, Robbie Williams and Laura Pausini perform before the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final match between Spain and Argentina at New York New Jersey Stadium on July 19, 2026 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. <\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tPost Malone performs during the closing ceremony before the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final match in East Rutherford, New Jersey. <\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tJennifer Hudson performs the U.S. national anthem before the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final match in East Rutherford, New Jersey. <\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tChris Martin performs during the Topps Final Halftime Show in the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final match in East Rutherford, New Jersey. <\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>Randy Motsinger<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soccer The FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show provided an answer to the burning question of how you fit Madonna, BTS, Justin Bieber, Shakira, Burna Boy, Gustavo Dudamel, Chris Martin and the Muppets into a single 11-minute segment: as fleetingly as possible. Although there were reports that the halftime extravaganza would be allowed to go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":921291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773,31189,2005],"tags":[19765,19514],"class_list":["post-921290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-blink","category-halftime","category-soccer","tag-blink","tag-halftime"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}