{"id":811634,"date":"2026-07-20T05:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T05:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811634\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T05:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T05:46:13","slug":"key-takeaways-from-random-fifa-world-cup-half-time-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811634\/","title":{"rendered":"Key takeaways from random FIFA World Cup half-time show"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a first for the FIFA World Cup: a half-time show, introduced in 2026, with a line-up of global superstars that included Madonna, Justin Bieber, Shakira, Burna Boy and BTS.<\/p>\n

Australian singer-songwriter Emmanuel Kelly, who rose to fame with his performances on The X Factor, was also in the mix.<\/p>\n

Some enthusiastically welcomed the show, but it had football tragics, who aren’t used to such a spectacle during “the beautiful game”, collectively pulling out their red cards.<\/p>\n

Former Manchester United and England legend Wayne Rooney, who is widely celebrated as one of the greatest players of his generation, even offered a brief but brutal assessment live on the BBC.<\/p>\n

“I like a lot of them artists, but I thought it was crap,” Rooney said.World Cup final quick hits<\/a><\/p>\n

Argentina’s players lash out in defeat, Ferran Torres becomes a Spanish icon forever and Donald Trump attempts to crash the winners’ party. Here are the World Cup final quick hits.<\/p>\n

“It just didn’t get me going and I wanted the football to come back on \u2026 I like Burna Boy, I like Bieber, I like Shakira, but that was too flat.”<\/p>\n

Ouch.<\/p>\n

But this article is for the pop culture-types.<\/p>\n

Here are some key takeaways from the inaugural 2026 FIFA World Cup half-time show, which took place at the temporarily renamed New York New Jersey stadium.<\/p>\n

Madonna \u2026 Ronaldo and Ronaldinho<\/p>\n

Madonna kicked things off with her track Music from her 2000 album of the same name.<\/p>\n

The song, with the refrain: “music makes the people come together”, had a twist to it, infused with elements of Disco Inferno, which was made famous by The Trammps in 1976, and was the centrepiece of the 1977 Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.<\/p>\n

The mashup also included elements of the song Danceteria from Madonna’s chart-topping new album Confessions II.<\/p>\n

The Queen of Pop made her entrance in a dune buggy driven by surprise guests, Brazilian football legends Ronaldo and Ronaldinho.<\/p>\n

BTS truncated but flawless<\/p>\n

K-pop superstars BTS were decked out in leather, and their dance moves came with the kind of kicks that certainly weren’t out of place on a football pitch.<\/p>\n

\"BTS<\/p>\n

BTS brought the moves. (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters: Vincent Carchietta)<\/p>\n

They performed their global hit Dynamite in a performance that felt too brief.<\/p>\n

But that’s because the entire halftime show had an 11-minute time limit, exceeding this by only about 30 seconds.<\/p>\n

Justin Bieber introduced by Ted Lasso<\/p>\n

Actors Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt, in character as Ted Lasso and Coach Beard respectively, made a surprise appearance to introduce Justin Bieber.<\/p>\n

\"Justin<\/p>\n

Justin Bieber brought down the tempo.\u00a0 (REUTERS: Amanda Perobelli)<\/p>\n

Bieber lowered the energy considerably by launching into Everything Hallelujah from his 2025 album Swag II.<\/p>\n

The acoustic performance had Bieber strumming a guitar.<\/p>\n

The minimalist stripped-backed performance felt intimate, and therefore a little out of place.<\/p>\n

Shakira and Burna Boy perform official song\"Shakira<\/p>\n

Shakira was a crowd favourite. (\u00a0IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters: Mark J Rebilas)<\/p>\n

Colombian superstar Shakira and African giant Burna Boy performed the official FIFA World Cup song Dai Dai.<\/p>\n

They were surrounded by Uganda’s Ghetto Kids, a renowned dance and music troupe founded by a former maths teacher.<\/p>\n

This performance brought the tempo way back up, jarring following Bieber’s set, but a crowd favourite according to ABC Sport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coldplay, the Muppets, and an Aussie<\/p>\n

The most random part of the whole show had to be The Muppets’ Electric Mayhem performing a rendition of Seven Nation Army.<\/p>\n

They were joined by Iranian violinist Bijan Mortazavi and an orchestra of musicians from the New York Philharmonic and Venezuela’s Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar Symphony Orchestra led by Gustavo Dudamel.<\/p>\n

More on FIFA World Cup 2026<\/p>\n

The Sesame Street flavour continued when Muppets from the show joined Disney’s The Muppets to debut We Dance, an original song written by Coldplay for the occasion.<\/p>\n

Coldplay was there too, including frontman Chris Martin, who curated the half-time show.<\/p>\n

The PS22 Chorus performed too, with a cameo from Adriana Lima.<\/p>\n

Australian Emmanuel Kelly, who appeared on season three of The X Factor, where he shared what it was like to live with a disability, was also part of the set.<\/p>\n

A prior taste of Hollywood<\/p>\n

The FIFA World Cup final began with a taste of Hollywood with Tinseltown superstar Tom Cruise delivering an inspirational monologue.<\/p>\n

“Football is a language spoken without words, a force that unites people, turns strangers into friends, and reminds us of what we all have in common,” Cruise said.<\/p>\n

Robbie Williams performed official anthem Desire alongside Italian pop singer Laura Pausini and lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls Nicole Scherzinger.<\/p>\n

Singer, actress and talk show host Jennifer Hudson sang The Star-Spangled Banner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a first for the FIFA World Cup: a half-time show, introduced in 2026, with a line-up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,405,386555,386550,386551,386554,596,36300,386553,24195,54629,85,124617,386552,386556],"class_list":["post-811634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bts","tag-fifa-final-halftime-show","tag-fifa-halftime-show","tag-fifa-world-cup-final","tag-fifa-world-cup-halftime-show","tag-football","tag-halftime-show","tag-halftime-show-world-cup","tag-madonna","tag-shakira","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026","tag-world-cup-halftime-show","tag-world-cup-halftime-show-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}