{"id":8991,"date":"2026-07-19T22:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thehotedit.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/19\/2026-world-cup-halftime-show-recap-shakira-madonna-bieber-bts\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T22:07:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:07:00","slug":"2026-world-cup-halftime-show-recap-shakira-madonna-bieber-bts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehotedit.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/19\/2026-world-cup-halftime-show-recap-shakira-madonna-bieber-bts\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 World Cup Halftime Show Recap: Shakira, Madonna, Bieber & BTS"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tThe 2026 FIFA World Cup Final halftime show did exactly what FIFA hoped and exactly what soccer purists feared: It turned the most sacred match in the sport into an 11-and-a-half-minute pop fever dream.<\/p>\n

\n\tStaged Sunday (July 19) at New York New Jersey Stadium (the rebranded MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey) during the Spain-Argentina final, the first-ever halftime spectacle in the championship match moved with the logic of a playlist on shuffle and the pace of a caffeine rush, squeezing Madonna, BTS, Justin Bieber, Shakira, Burna Boy, Gustavo Dudamel, a children\u2019s chorus, the Muppets, Coldplay\u2019s Chris Martiin, and a sky full of colorful fireworks into a blink-and-you-missed-it production that still somehow felt gigantic. If the challenge was making every second count, the show\u2019s greatest success was understanding that subtlety had no place here.<\/p>\n

\n\tMadonna kicked things off in gloriously extra fashion, rolling in with DJ Stuart Price behind her while Brazilian legends Ronaldo and Ronaldinho appeared in a jeep with a license plate that read \u201cMaestro,\u201d because of course they did. From there, the show lurched \u2014 thrillingly, and at times hilariously \u2014 into Gustavo Dudamel leading players from the New York Philharmonic and the Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela through a dramatic take on The White Stripes\u2019 \u201cSeven Nation Army,\u201d complete with flags, strings, color and Muppets in the mix.<\/p>\n

\n\tBTS followed<\/a> in matching red, motorcycle-inspired looks for a turbocharged \u201cDynamite,\u201d<\/a> before Jason Sudeikis, slipping back into Ted Lasso mode, introduced a notably subdued Justin Bieber for an acoustic \u201cEverything Hallelujah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThen came the halftime show\u2019s most natural stadium-pop peak: Shakira and Burna Boy tearing into the Billboard Global 200 chart-topper \u201cDai Dai,\u201d backed by Ghetto Kids dancing. By the time the PS22 Chorus, Chris Martin, Kermit, Miss Piggy and the rest of the cast closed on a giant \u201cLOVE\u201d tableau with fireworks overhead, the whole thing felt slightly unhinged, deeply overstuffed and undeniably memorable.<\/p>\n

\n\tHere are the biggest highlights from each performance.<\/p>\n