EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The first-ever FIFA World Cup Final halftime show will feature Justin Bieber, Madonna, Shakira, BTS, and Burna Boy, with conductor Gustavo Dudamel and a Staten Island elementary school chorus rounding out an 11-minute performance at New York New Jersey Stadium on July 19, FIFA and Global Citizen announced Monday. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the full performer lineup.
Bieber’s participation marks his first significant public performance since headlining Coachella in April 2026. Chris Martin of Coldplay is serving as artistic curator, overseeing a production designed to reflect the global geography of a tournament played across 16 North American cities since June. The show is produced by Global Citizen, Live Nation, and Done + Dusted.
“The FIFA World Cup brings the world together in a way nothing else can,” Bieber said in a statement. “I’m grateful to be part of this Halftime Show.”
Burna Boy’s inclusion is the show’s sharpest symbolic statement. The Afrobeats headliner becomes the first African artist to headline a FIFA World Cup Final performance, a distinction he addressed directly.
“To represent Africa on the first-ever FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show is a privilege and a responsibility that I don’t take lightly,” he said.
Burna Boy’s rise from Port Harcourt to a Grammy Award and a global arena tour circuit has tracked alongside the expansion of Afrobeats into mainstream pop. His presence at New York New Jersey Stadium extends that trajectory into the sport’s most-watched occasion. For the African football fans who have watched Nigeria, Senegal, Morocco, and South Africa carry the continent’s hopes through this tournament – and seen them fall in turn – the booking carries a weight the press release does not fully capture.
The fundraising dimension of the show distinguishes it from a conventional entertainment booking. Global Citizen, whose concerts across New York, Mumbai, and Johannesburg have built a model for activism-tied spectacle, has set a target of $100 million for the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, directing resources toward educational access and football development for children globally. The mechanism mirrors Global Citizen’s established framework, in which artist appearances are tied to pledges and measurable outcomes.
Whether that model translates into an 11-minute halftime window, against the backdrop of 1.5 billion viewers waiting for the second half, is the central question the production will need to answer. The show adds a cultural dimension to what is already the most heavily freighted match the tournament could have delivered. The France-Spain World Cup semifinal settled in Dallas on Tuesday, with Mbappe’s France against a Spain side that had conceded once in five games. England and Argentina resolved their Atlanta semifinal on Wednesday. Both finalists earned their places through seven weeks of attrition across North America.
The PS22 Chorus – the Staten Island elementary school ensemble that has performed at the Oscars and toured internationally – brings the show’s most local element into what is otherwise a deliberately global lineup. Gustavo Dudamel, the Venezuelan-born conductor who leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, will conduct the production live. The Muppets, including Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, are also listed among the performers.
Madonna has not performed at a halftime event since the 2012 Super Bowl. Shakira’s “Waka Waka” remains the most-streamed FIFA World Cup song in Spotify history. BTS’s crossover into Western markets has produced consecutive stadium sellouts across two continents. Each brings a distinct global audience into a broadcast window that FIFA estimates at more than a billion viewers – none of whom have watched this kind of show at a World Cup Final before.
Done + Dusted, whose credits include the Super Bowl LVI halftime show with Dr. Dre, is handling the staging alongside Live Nation. FIFA has staged no halftime entertainment at previous World Cup Finals. The decision to introduce one reflects both the tournament’s expansion from 32 to 48 teams and the commercial recalibration FIFA has pursued since 2023. The Final at MetLife – sold out since March – will be broadcast across more markets than any previous World Cup Final.
No setlist has been released, no running order confirmed, and no breakdown of who performs alongside whom. Eleven minutes allows for, at most, three songs at pop tempo. Six headliners, a conductor, an elementary school chorus, and the Muppets suggest a production whose final shape will only become clear when the referee blows for halftime on July 19. What is certain is that more than a billion viewers will be watching when it does.
