Shakira, Madonna and BTS to Headline First-Ever World Cup Final Halftime Show
FIFA has confirmed Shakira, Madonna and BTS as headliners for the inaugural halftime show at the 2026 World Cup final at MetLife Stadium on July 19. The show is curated by Coldplay's Chris Martin and produced by Global Citizen, with proceeds and 1 dollar per match ticket flowing to a new 100 million dollar FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund. Reggaetón star J Balvin will headline the opening ceremony in Mexico City.
F IFA has named Shakira, Madonna and South Korean group BTS as the headline acts for the first halftime show ever staged at a World Cup final. The performance lands on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the venue chosen to close out the expanded 48-team tournament. FIFA announced the line-up in an Instagram post on Thursday, alongside a teaser video featuring Coldplay's Chris Martin with characters from Sesame Street and the Muppets, and a cameo from BTS.
Martin is curating the show, which will be produced by the non-profit Global Citizen. FIFA said the performance is tied to the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, described as "a landmark initiative working to raise USD 100 million to expand access to quality education and football for children around the world". Across the tournament, 1 US dollar from every match ticket sold will be donated to the fund.
A halftime music slot at a World Cup final is a structural departure for FIFA. The Laws of the Game maintained by IFAB cap the halftime interval at 15 minutes, and FIFA has not yet detailed whether the existing interval will be extended for the production, as the NFL does for the Super Bowl halftime show. The technical staging and broadcast timing will likely sit alongside the standard tournament protocols rather than replace them.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino had teased a halftime moment at the 2026 final at a tournament event back in March 2025, calling it "a historic moment for the FIFA World Cup and a show befitting the biggest sporting event in the world". Thursday's announcement turns that into a concrete line-up. The Shakira and Madonna pairing brings two artists with deep World Cup-era catalogues and Latin American resonance. BTS adds an Asian-market dimension on a scale FIFA has not previously had on its final-day stage.
On the other side of the tournament, FIFA last week confirmed reggaetón star J Balvin as the headliner for the opening ceremony in Mexico City on June 11, the day Mexico hosts the curtain-raiser at Estadio Azteca. The opening line-up around Balvin also includes Alejandro Fernández, Belinda, Danny Ocean, Lila Downs, Los Ángeles Azules, Maná and Tyla, a mix of Mexican mainstream pop, ranchera, electronic and Afro-pop voices designed to anchor the show in the host city while reaching beyond it.