LoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyIt was all Chris Martin’s idea.
During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Coldplay frontman called Hugh Evans, the CEO of Global Citizen, for whom he curates the Global Citizen Festival, with something new to pitch. “Wouldn’t it be incredible,” Evans recalls Martin saying, “if we could do the first-ever halftime show for the World Cup?” Evans agreed, and connected with FIFA president Gianni Infantino at the organization’s headquarters in Switzerland to sell him on Martin’s plan. He didn’t need to.
Infantino had already had a similar idea—and was a Coldplay fan. “So he actually had already independently decided that he wanted to work with Coldplay and that he wanted to achieve this dream,” Evans says.
The result of those conversations, set to take the pitch during Sunday’s World Cup final between Spain and Argentina at New York New Jersey Stadium, is a massive but just 11-minute-long show featuring Justin Bieber, Madonna, BTS, and Shakira. They’ll be joined by Coldplay and a chorus from Staten Island’s PS22 school, and watched by millions of people in homes, bars, and street corners around the world.
The show is also part of an effort to raise $100 million for Global Citizen’s youth education efforts worldwide. FIFA is donating one dollar from each ticket sold during the tournament to the fund, and Shakira is donating royalties from her World Cup anthem with Burna Boy—”Dai Dai”—to the effort as well.
Not that all World Cup fans are necessarily excited to see the show. Soccer fans have been skeptical of the final having a halftime show for months. The World Cup has never done such a thing, the argument goes, and doesn’t need one now. Given that halftime shows are practically synonymous with the Super Bowl, some fans think having a halftime show is part of an effort to “Americanize” the World Cup, or make it more appealing to viewers in countries where soccer is less popular. Others have, for example, chafed at things like “hydration breaks” which are seen as just another way to get eyeballs on ads.
“The World Cup has traditionally centered its musical identity on a single iconic anthem and an opening ceremony rooted in the host nation,” says Tiffany Naiman, director of the Berry Gordy Music Industry Center at UCLA. “So when FIFA unveils an 11-minute halftime spectacle, featuring Madonna and Justin Bieber, and Tom Cruise attached to the closing ceremony, it reads to some as importing an American made-for-TV sensibility.”
Oh yeah, Tom Cruise. Much like he did with the closing ceremony for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Cruise is scheduled to appear during the World Cup’s closing ceremony ahead of the final match.
Naiman stresses that while some may fear the inclusion of a halftime ceremony Americanizes the event, it’s being done with a global roster of artists. Bieber is Canadian, after all, and his home country is a host to the Cup. The majority of the acts aren’t from the US. “Ultimately, what's being globalized isn't American culture so much as the production model,” she says. “FIFA is borrowing the language of the Super Bowl while filling it with artists who reflect the geography of its audience.”
This focus on worldwide appeal was important for Evans, and it has already attracted at least one hugely influential international fan base: the BTS Army. Members of the Army have been in his mentions in recent weeks, dropping their signature purple hearts. They’ve also helped Global Citizen get closer to its fundraising goal: They raised some $40,000 for the Global Citizen fund in the first week “without even being asked,” Evans says.
Interest in the halftime show is also showing up on Kalshi and Polymarket, which have both seen tens of billions of dollars in World Cup prediction market trading, according to a CNBC report. One Kalshi market had Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” marked as a potential highlight of the show. A Polymarket market opted for “Dai Dai.” The latter seems more likely as it is the official song of the World Cup, and features Burna Boy, who is also slated to perform.
Whatever songs are performed, they won’t get much time. Madonna may not even have four minutes to save the world. Given that the show is slated to be 11 minutes, I asked producer Lee Rolontz how she thought about managing that time. Essentially the solution was to break the show down into “chapters” with each artist getting roughly 1:45 of time to perform. “It's definitely made it more challenging,” she says, “but it's also made it more global.”
Having multiple artists from all over the world is also, Rolontz believes, what sets the show apart from something like the Super Bowl halftime show. Not that she didn’t go to the NFL for tips. One of the biggest challenges her team faced was protecting the pitch during the show. FIFA has strict rules about the quality of the grass footballers play on, so the turf can’t sustain any damage. So the production team consulted with the people responsible for the integrity of FIFA pitches and also with NFL field director Nick Pappas.
“I shared some best practices that I have found to be helpful when protecting the playing surface during in-game entertainment/concerts/etc.” Pappas says in an email, adding that the NFL has worked with FIFA on matches held at US stadiums during the FIFA World Cup and Club World Cup.
During the show, the pitch will be covered, Rolontz says, and any equipment being rolled out onto the performance area—staging materials, camera dollies, and such—has been constructed to not damage the grass. It’s also designed to move quickly. All told, Rolontz’s team will have between 3 and 4 minutes to get everything on and off the pitch.
It’s incredibly meticulous work, but also seemingly worth it. Ask Rolontz about comparisons between her show and the Super Bowl halftime show and she’ll repeat the refrain about the show’s global appeal, adding that it also “has a purpose.” It’s meant to be something for soccer fans all over the world; it’s also a fundraiser. “We are creating something that the world can look at as theirs, and we want to unite the world and really move toward those principles,” she says.
During our conversation, I ask Rolontz if all the talk about unity is in response to the political climate in which this World Cup is taking place. It’s the first such tournament to be held, at least partially, in President Trump’s America, and that’s led to all sorts of issues for players from countries like Iran and worries about surveillance. She mostly demurs, saying “this is not meant to be political in any way.”
Still, Isra Ali, a professor of media, culture, and communication at NYU Steinhardt, says the pall of the outside world will fall on this Cup no matter what. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the next one showed a specific resistance to the hyper-commercialization as an American thing,” she says. “If I were the next country hosting, I’d come out and say, ‘Don’t worry, our president isn’t going to interfere, and we’re not going to run commercials during water breaks, and you can watch soccer and football the way you’re used to.”
