The FIFA World Cup Halftime Show Breaks A Longstanding Tradition

THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON — Episode 2272 — Pictured: Musical guest BTS performs on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 — (Photo by: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images)

Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images

For 96 years, the FIFA World Cup final has observed the same tradition at half-time: fifteen minutes of punditry, tactical analysis, and players regrouping in the tunnel. On July 19, that changes. For the first time in the tournament’s history, the World Cup final will feature a full halftime show headlined by Madonna, Shakira, and BTS, curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, and broadcast live to the largest television audience in sports.

Why The World Cup Has Never Had A Halftime Show Before

World Cup finals have always had a short, unstructured break, with no musical performance. FIFA did test the concept at a smaller scale last year for the 2025 Club World Cup final, a separate competition featuring club rather than national teams. That game featured a halftime show headlined by Colombian artist J Balvin that ran approximately 25 minutes. But the FIFA World Cup itself — the quadrennial national teams tournament that drew close to 1.5 billion viewers for the final last time — has never done this before. July 19 will be the first time in the tournament's 96-year history that its final will feature a curated halftime performance.

The 2022 final in Qatar was the most-watched in FIFA World Cup history, and this year’s final in New Jersey is expected to break those records, which means FIFA’s decision to add a halftime show makes commercial sense now when it never did before, especially factoring in streaming.

Who Is Performing At The FIFA World Cup And Why

Madonna, Shakira and BTS will co-headline the first-ever FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show at the New York New Jersey Stadium on July 19. Curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin and produced by Global Citizen, the show will raise funds for the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, a landmark initiative working to raise $100 million to expand access to quality education and football for children worldwide.

With the combination of pop music coming from the US, Latin America, and Korea, the World Cup final halftime show will personify the global nature of the sport. Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award winner and BTS became the first K-pop group ever to receive a Grammy nomination in 2020. Shakira’s connection to the World Cup, of course, is deeper than any of the three headliners; her 2010 banger of an official World Cup song “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” set a Guinness World Record for Spotify’s most streamed World Cup song.

Shakira will also perform "Dai Dai," the official song for the 2026 tournament, with Burna Boy at the opening ceremony in Mexico City, making her the only artist performing at both the tournament’s opening and its finale.

BTS, for their part, are taking the halftime slot between tour dates on the ARIRANG World Tour. The seven-member K-pop juggernauts recently returned to the stage following a three-year hiatus to complete mandatory military service obligations. Their performance at the World Cup final will be the largest live audience (in the stadium and on television combined) of their post-enlistment era.

Chris Martin himself has not been confirmed as a headline performer, but Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans told Bloomberg the audience is in "for some big surprises." Characters from Sesame Street and The Muppets will also be part of the show, reinforcing the performance’s stated mission around children's education.

The FIFA World Cup’s BBC Complication

Not every broadcaster is embracing the change. According to The Times, British audiences may not receive the halftime show in real time because their broadcasters BBC and ITV are reportedly considering sticking with their traditional format of using the slot for punditry and analysis of the first half. The performances would be viewable via the networks’ respective digital platforms. The decision, if confirmed, would mean that British viewers, who comprise some of the world’s most intense football audiences, would be watching the halftime show under actively different conditions than the rest of the world, on a delay and on a secondary platform.

How To Watch The World Cup Final Halftime Show

In the United States, viewers can watch the show live on Fox Sports, with the match airing on the FOX network. Spanish-language viewers can watch through NBCUniversal's Peacock with a Premium or Premium Plus subscription, with the match also airing on Telemundo. The FIFA World Cup final kicks off at 3pm ET on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.