The Killers Perform With Vegas Showgirls at UEFA Champions League Final in Budapest

The UEFA Champions League final in Budapest got a dose of Nevada gloss on Saturday. The Killers took the field before the Arsenal vs. Paris Saint-Germain match, delivering a four-song set backed by dancers in full Las Vegas showgirl regalia. It was a compact, functional performance built entirely on singles that have long outgrown the band’s catalogue.

They opened with “When You Were Young,” then moved through “Human” and “All These Things That I’ve Done” before closing with “Mr. Brightside.” No new material, no gestures toward album cycles, just a clean extraction of the songs that still move crowds in stadiums, festivals, and now, a major European sports venue.

The setting highlighted how completely those songs have detached from their original indie-rock moorings. “Mr. Brightside,” in particular, has lived a second life as a communal shout-along, and in Budapest it functioned less as a performance than as a shared ritual between band and crowd. The showgirls, all feathers and sequined bodysuits, leaned into the Vegas identity the group has sometimes worn lightly. Here, it was presented without irony.

The booking itself speaks to the increasing entanglement of live music and major sporting events. The Champions League final precedes a World Cup that already lists other musicians attached to its programming. For The Killers, it’s another marker of a legacy built less on constant reinvention and more on a handful of songs that refuse to fade.