{"id":558975,"date":"2026-07-20T12:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T12:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/558975\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T12:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T12:27:16","slug":"world-cup-half-time-show-in-pictures-shakira-madonna-bts-justin-bieber-and-more-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/558975\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup half-time show in pictures: Shakira, Madonna, BTS, Justin Bieber and more \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Superstars Madonna<\/a>, BTS<\/a>, Justin Bieber<\/a> and Shakira<\/a> offered a high-energy musical medley on Sunday in \u200cthe first half-time show at a World Cup<\/a> final. <\/p>\n

Madonna kicked off the Super Bowl-style show, one of \u200bseveral American elements added to this year\u2019s tournament, with a performance of her 2000 hit single Music. <\/p>\n

Wearing a pink corset and sporty jacket, she emerged from the tunnels of New York New Jersey Stadium via a \u200bdune buggy driven by Brazilian football greats Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. <\/p>\n

The \u2060spotlight moved to renowned Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who led an orchestra of \u200cmusicians \u200cfrom \u200bNew York and Venezuela, plus The Muppets band Electric Mayhem and their wild drummer Animal, in a rendition of the White \u2060Stripes song Seven Nation Army. <\/p>\n

K-pop group \u200bBTS, clad in black-and-red outfits, followed with \u200bthe upbeat Dynamite. American actors Jason Sudeikis<\/a> and Brendan Hunt, in character as coaches from TV \u200cshow Ted Lasso<\/a>, introduced Bieber as a \u200bmid-show substitution. \u201cGo out there, don\u2019t be nervous, nobody\u2019s watching,\u201d Sudeikis said to the singer. \u2060Bieber slowed the tempo with the \u2060acoustic Everything Hallelujah, changing \u200bthe song\u2019s final words to World Cup Hallelujah. <\/p>\n

Colombian singer Shakira and Nigeria\u2019s Burna Boy joined for Dai Dai, the official song of the 2026 World Cup. Shakira shimmered in a sequinned pink-and-yellow outfit that complemented a multicoloured carpet underneath. The show ended with the word LOVE splashed across the field, with an image of the Earth representing the letter O.<\/p>\n

In advance of the match, the half-time show \u200cdrew criticism for deviating \u2060from the traditional 15-minute interval. International Laws of the Game say players are entitled to a half-time interval \u201cnot exceeding 15 minutes.\u201d Tournament regulations, however, mention \u200ca 15-minute break but do not say it cannot exceed that time.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0World Cup 2026 final: Spotlight on Chris Martin\u2019s team and tactics for \u2018halftime show\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The musical performances lasted 11 minutes, \u200bbut the entire break extended to around 27 minutes as \u200bworkers moved equipment to and from the pitch. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n

\"WorldWorld Cup half-time show: Ronaldinho, Madonna and Ronaldo. Photograph: Carl Recine\/Getty Images \"WorldWorld Cup half-time show: Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. Photograph: Justin Setterfield\/Getty Images \"WorldWorld Cup half-time show: Animal performing with The Muppets band Electric Mayhem and Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who led an orchestra of \u200cmusicians \u200cfrom \u200bNew York and Venezuela. Photopgraph: Kevin C Cox\/Getty Images \"WorldWorld Cup half-time show: K-pop group BTS. Photograph: Carl Recine\/Getty Images \"WorldWorld Cup half-time show: Justin Beiber. Photograph: Buda Mendes\/Getty Images \"WorldWorld Cup half-time show: Shakira. Photograph: Lars Baron\/Getty Images \"WorldWorld Cup half-time show: Shakira with children who were part of the performace. Photograph: Timothy A Clary\/Getty Images \"WorldWorld Cup half-time show: Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog with children who were part of the performace. Photograph: Carl Recine\/Getty Images \"WorldWorld Cup half-time show: Coldplay’s Chris Martin. Photograph: Carl Recine\/Getty Images \"WorldWorld Cup half-time show: The performance ended with the word ‘love’ splashed across the field. Photograph: Elsa\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Superstars Madonna, BTS, Justin Bieber and Shakira offered a high-energy musical medley on Sunday in \u200cthe first half-time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6432,18922,61,60,14763,281,664,6549,3405,112,115,4018],"class_list":["post-558975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-bts","tag-chris-martin","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jason-sudeikis","tag-justin-bieber","tag-madonna","tag-shakira","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}