{"id":52641,"date":"2026-07-19T20:59:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T20:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=52641"},"modified":"2026-07-19T20:59:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T20:59:27","slug":"world-cup-final-halftime-show-madonna-bieber-shakira-bts-steal-the-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2026\/07\/19\/world-cup-final-halftime-show-madonna-bieber-shakira-bts-steal-the-show\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup Final Halftime Show: Madonna, Bieber, Shakira, BTS Steal the Show"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pop superstar Madonna and Justin Bieber have entertained the thousands of spectators at the 2026 World Cup half-time show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Madonna sung her hit song Music – seeming to appear from tunnels under the arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justin Bieber, BTS and Shakira also wowed the crowds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The half-time was 27 minutes and 22 seconds – the longest in World Cup history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Justin Bieber played guitar in his segment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Colombian pop star Shakira and Nigerian musician Burna Boy reunited on stage after performing together at the tournament’s opening ceremony in Mexico City last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shakira and Burna Boy’s collaboration, Dai Dai, has been a global chart hit a fixture in stadiums throughout the tournament<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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K-Pop group BTS have been making their comeback from a three-year music hiatus to complete their mandatory military service in South Korea. The band is currently in the midst of an 85-date world tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The half-time show has been curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin and will raise money for the Fifa Global Citizen Education Fund, an initiative working to raise $100m (\u00a373m) for children worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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South Korean K-pop group BTS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The stadium was a riot of colour for the half-time show, with fireworks ringing the stadium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Several celebrities were spotted watching on, including Kylie Jenner and her boyfriend Timothee Chalamet, as well as Beyonce and Jay-Z.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Jay-Z and Beyonce<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Anya Taylor-Joy was seen with her husband US musician Malcolm McRae<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, a range of performances began the sporting event’s closing ceremony, including Jennifer Hudson singing the national anthem and a speech from actor Tom Cruise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Streamer IShowSpeed took to the field at the New York New Jersey Stadium first, alongside drummers and dancers in vibrant tracksuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicole Scherzinger, Robbie Williams and Italian Singer Laura Pausini also performed together, while rapper and singer Post Malone also performed his hit song Wow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nicole Scherzinger, Robbie Williams and Italian Singer Laura Pausini performed together<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tom Cruise spoke about the power of football to unite people<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Jennifer Hudson sings the national anthem before the match<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ahead of kick-off, multi-award-winning singer and actor Jennifer Hudson performed the US national anthem, accompanied by a live band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the performances, Tom Cruise took to the stage to introduce the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“From every corner of the globe, we have witnessed greatness, and we have shared in moments of joy,” he told the crowd. “Football is a language spoken without words, a force that unites people.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Post Malone was joined by rapper Swae Lee to sing their hit song Sunflower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Italian singer Pausini told the BBC’s Carl Nasman that she’s “very excited” and “proud” to be performing alongside Williams and Scherzinger at the closing ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When Robbie [Williams] invited me to sing with him, I felt goosebumps everywhere because Robbie’s one of my favorite singer, songwriter, and performer,” Pausini told the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not everyone was thrilled by the performances. Former England player Wayne Rooney, who was part of the commentary team for the BBC, said: “I like a lot of them artists, but I thought it was crap.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The start of the closing ceremony featured a lot of gold at the beginning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"FIFA
Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump joined the Fifa boss Gianni Infantino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pop superstar Madonna and Justin Bieber have entertained the thousands of spectators at the 2026 World Cup half-time show. Madonna sung her hit song Music – seeming to appear from tunnels under the arena. Justin Bieber, BTS and Shakira also wowed the crowds. The half-time was 27 minutes and 22 seconds – the longest in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":52642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"bbc","_post_source_url":"https:\/\/bbc.com","footnotes":""},"categories":[80,3295],"tags":[10618,2735,117,8920,616,11961,287,9521,11254,9331,9522,9171,423,1258,5500,2944,5247,9643,5918,7097,5910,12861,9259,119,8923,7141,6690,2774,308,2606,8126,463,1510,5445,5572,5612,5058,12692,2323,990,5549,11973,8369,4232,428,13235,1559,3265,6838,7185,10553,10041,9814,6539,6348,5235,3954,36,5248,7653,6974],"class_list":["post-52641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-world-sport","tag-actor","tag-bbc","tag-beyonce","tag-bts","tag-burna-boy","tag-celebrities","tag-children","tag-chris-martin","tag-citizen","tag-city","tag-coldplay","tag-crowd","tag-education","tag-england","tag-fifa","tag-first-lady","tag-football","tag-fund","tag-gold","tag-halftime","tag-initiative","tag-ishowspeed","tag-italian","tag-jay-z","tag-justin","tag-justin-bieber","tag-korea","tag-kylie-jenner","tag-madonna","tag-malone","tag-match","tag-melania-trump","tag-mexico","tag-mexico-city","tag-military","tag-money","tag-music","tag-musician","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-nigerian","tag-one","tag-performer","tag-post-malone","tag-rapper","tag-riot","tag-rooney","tag-shakira","tag-singer","tag-south-korea","tag-south-korean","tag-speech","tag-timothee-chalamet","tag-tom-cruise","tag-us","tag-wayne-rooney","tag-will","tag-world","tag-world-cup","tag-world-tour","tag-worldwide"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52643,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52641\/revisions\/52643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}