The World Cup final has never had a halftime show. That changes on 19 July.
FIFA has confirmed the lineup for the first halftime performance at a men's World Cup final, and it is stacked. Madonna, Shakira, Burna Boy, BTS and Justin Bieber will perform alongside Coldplay, with conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the PS22 Chorus completing the bill. The show is curated by Coldplay's Chris Martin and runs about 11 minutes, per ESPN.
Yes, the Muppets are in it too. ESPN and Global Citizen's event page both confirm that characters from Sesame Street, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy among them, will feature. Think of it as the Super Bowl formula, pointed at a football final for the first time.
Here is what to know before Sunday.
Who is performing at the World Cup 2026 final halftime show
The confirmed performers, per FIFA:
- Madonna
- Shakira
- Burna Boy
- BTS
- Justin Bieber
- Coldplay, with Chris Martin curating
- Gustavo Dudamel, conducting
- The PS22 Chorus
- Muppets from Sesame Street, including Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy
Two names carry extra weight for this tournament. Burna Boy co-wrote the official World Cup 2026 song, "Dai Dai," with Shakira, a track that blends Afrobeats and Latin rhythms, per ESPN. So the interval doubles as a live outing for the sound that has soundtracked the whole summer. Fitting all of it into 11 minutes is Chris Martin's problem to solve, and it is a crowded stage.
When is the World Cup 2026 final: date, time and venue
The final kicks off at 3pm ET on Sunday, 19 July, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, per Fox Sports and ESPN's schedule. It is an afternoon final, unusual for a showpiece of this size, which puts the halftime show in daylight rather than under the lights.
Work back from kickoff and the performance lands somewhere around 4pm ET, at the break. FIFA has not published an exact clock time for the show, so treat the halftime slot as the window rather than a fixed start. Broadcast details vary by market, so check your local rights holder for the match, and the show that comes with it.
Who is in the final
The two finalists are not yet decided. France meet Spain in one semi-final on Tuesday, 14 July, in Dallas, a tie still to be played as this publishes. The other last-four match is also outstanding, so the second finalist is unknown for now.
The performers, though, are locked in regardless of who reaches East Rutherford. Whichever two nations walk out at MetLife, the same 11 minutes await them at the interval.
Why the final has a halftime show for the first time
This is not a one-off gimmick. The performance is produced with Global Citizen as part of a four-year partnership with FIFA, announced at the 2024 Global Citizen Festival, per Global Citizen's event page.
It is built around the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which aims to raise $100 million for children's access to education and football worldwide. In plain terms, the biggest stage in the sport is being aimed at a fundraising target, with the halftime show as the centrepiece.
That framing explains the guest list. A World Cup final draws a global audience in the billions, and the pull of Madonna, BTS and Shakira inside the same 11 minutes is the sort of reach a cause campaign almost never gets to buy.
The Central Park watch party
If a ticket to MetLife is out of reach, and for almost everyone it is, New York has an answer. Global Citizen is planning a watch party for roughly 50,000 fans on the Great Lawn in Central Park, billed as the largest World Cup 2026 final watch party in the world, per its event page.
It turns the final into a citywide event rather than a stadium one: the match on big screens, the halftime show as its own draw, a crowd the size of a mid-table club's home gate sitting in the middle of Manhattan.
What happens next
The semi-finals come first. France face Spain on Tuesday, and the second finalist will be settled alongside them, before either result touches the show. Nothing about the lineup depends on the football.
For now, the good questions are the fun ones. Will Shakira and Burna Boy play "Dai Dai" in full? How do you fit Madonna, BTS, Justin Bieber and a conducting Dudamel into 11 minutes without it turning into a medley on fast-forward? And does Kermit get a solo? The answers arrive at the interval on 19 July.
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