BTS, Shakira and Madonna will headline the first-ever FIFA World Cup Final halftime show on July 19 at MetLife Stadium, curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin
FIFA has made history official. Madonna, Shakira, and BTS will co-headline the first-ever halftime show at a FIFA World Cup Final, Global Citizen announced Thursday, May 14. The 11-minute performance is set for July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, during the biggest match of the most-watched sporting event on earth. The show is curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin in partnership with Global Citizen, with proceeds benefiting the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which is working to raise $100 million to expand access to education and football for children worldwide and has already surpassed $30 million raised, including $1 from every World Cup ticket sold throughout the tournament.
The announcement arrived at midnight ET via a social video that leaned fully into its moment. Martin delivered the news alongside Sesame Street’s Elmo, Cookie Monster, and a full Muppets contingent including Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. The crew FaceTimed BTS mid-video to confirm the group’s involvement, a detail that promptly drove fan reaction across social media. Martin framed the show’s intent plainly in the video: “But this show is more about we than me. I mean, it’s about togetherness.”
Three Acts, Three Eras, One Unprecedented Stage
The lineup reaches across three of the most globally dominant acts in pop music history. Madonna headlined the Super Bowl halftime show in 2012 and arrives here in the middle of a major comeback moment. Her album “Confessions II,” the sequel to her 2005 classic “Confessions on a Dance Floor,” drops July 3, two weeks before the final. She has already released lead single “Bring Your Love,” a duet with Sabrina Carpenter that the pair live-debuted during Weekend 2 of Coachella, and “I Feel So Free.” The timing is precise: MetLife in July will be the largest stage available for any artist on the planet, and Madonna is walking into it with new music in hand.
Shakira’s connection to the World Cup runs deeper than a booking. “Waka, Waka (This Time for Africa),” her official song for the 2010 tournament in South Africa, remains one of the most-heard World Cup anthems in history. Her new official 2026 World Cup song, “Dai Dai,” recorded with Burna Boy, was released Thursday alongside the halftime announcement. She co-headlined the 2020 Super Bowl with Jennifer Lopez. Her “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour 2026” has dates at MetLife-area venues on July 14 and July 20, bracketing the final on both sides. The scheduling is not accidental.
BTS returned to music in March with “ARIRANG,” their sixth studio album and first since completing mandatory South Korean military service. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and held the top spot for three consecutive weeks, their first multi-week No. 1 on the chart. Their ARIRANG World Tour launched in Goyang, South Korea, moved to the U.S. on April 25, and runs through international dates into next March. In a statement released Thursday, the group addressed the scale of the moment directly: “It is a tremendous honor to stand on such a meaningful stage shared by the entire world. We believe music is a universal language that delivers hope and unity.”
The Broader World Cup Music Picture
This halftime show does not exist in isolation. The 2026 World Cup is the most music-saturated edition of the tournament in its history. Last week, FIFA confirmed that Katy Perry, Future, Tyla, LISA, and Anitta will perform across the three opening ceremonies in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Perry headlines the Los Angeles ceremony on June 12, ahead of the U.S. men’s national team’s opener against Paraguay, with Future and DJ Sanjoy also on the SoFi Stadium bill. Canada’s ceremony features Alanis Morissette, Alessia Cara, and Michael Bublé, among others. Mexico’s includes J Balvin, Maná, and Los Ángeles Azules.
The halftime show model at the World Cup was tested last year at the Club World Cup Final, where Martin curated performances by Doja Cat, J Balvin, and Tems. That precedent set the template. What arrives on July 19 is a significant escalation, three of the best-selling artists in pop history on the same stage, for 11 minutes, in front of a global television audience estimated to exceed one billion viewers.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup Final halftime show takes place July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
