An 11-Minute Halftime Show, 12 Acts, and One World Cup Final

The 2025 World Cup final between Spain and Argentina had reached the break scoreless when FIFA did something the sport has mostly avoided: it staged a halftime show. In 11 minutes, a parade of global music figures—Madonna, Shakira, Justin Bieber, BTS, Burna Boy, Chris Martin, and others—crossed the pitch at New York New Jersey Stadium, leaving little room for coherence but plenty for spectacle.

Madonna opened from a golf cart driven by Brazilian legends Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, running through a reworked “Music” and recent single “Danceteria.” It was brief, slick, and knowing. Then the mood shifted sharply: conductor Gustavo Dudamel led an orchestra that mixed the New York Philharmonic, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, and the electric chaos of the Muppets’ house band through “Seven Nation Army.” The transition felt less curated than crammed.

BTS appeared next, delivering a few seconds of “Dynamite” before disappearing—a cameo that made sense only if you knew they’d been in Paris the day before. Jason Sudeikis, in character as Ted Lasso, then trotted out to deliver a pep talk to Justin Bieber, who sang “Everything Hallelujah.” The pivot from K-pop to scripted comedy to earnest pop was jarring, as if the showrunner had lost a bet.

Shakira and Burna Boy performed “Dai Dai,” the tournament’s official song, before the PS 22 Chorus and Chris Martin closed with Coldplay’s “We Dance.” Fireworks burst over the stadium, an Argentinian commentator shouted “GOL,” and the pitch was cleared in seconds. The game restarted, leaving the halftime experiment as a memory of pure scale, no shape, and the lingering sense that soccer’s biggest stage had been rented out for a global ad break.