{"id":534473,"date":"2026-07-20T02:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T02:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/534473\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T02:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T02:30:08","slug":"killer-or-killed-the-vibe-biebers-fifa-halftime-performance-divides-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/534473\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Killer’ or ‘killed the vibe?’ Bieber’s FIFA Halftime performance divides fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first-ever FIFA World Cup halftime show<\/a> featured a star-studded lineup, but one act in particular is fuelling internet arguments this morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Justin Bieber’s acoustic performance of ‘Everything Hallelujah’ is being accused of being “boring”, “underwhelming”, and “bringing down the vibes” following high-energy appearances from Madonna and BTS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, others insist the Canadian pop star’s stripped-back approach showed off his vocal talents and musicality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bieber was introduced by Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis, and opted to change the lyrics of his hit song from ‘Swag II’ to include the line “it’s the World Cup, hallelujah”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Justin Bieber, I love you man, but this song ain\u2019t it dawg, we need some vibes,” one fan wrote, while another called his song “a nice lullaby”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Justin Bieber again with his underwhelming performance,” said a third. <\/p>\n

\nOne commenter wrote simply “Man, that was horrible”, adding “God bless Shakira”, who followed Bieber along with Burna Boy for a performance of ‘Dai Dai’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the other hand, some called Bieber “impressive” with “perfect pitch”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0“I’m not a Biebs fan, but he killed it. Everyone else is lip-syncing and he went solo with only an acoustic guitar,” one X user wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Justin Bieber, with just his singing voice and an acoustic guitar, smashed every single other performer. It wasn\u2019t even a close contest. It was clearly the best,” wrote another.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Just him and a guitar\u2026 super impressive.”\n<\/p>\n

“My favourite part about Justin Bieber, he\u2019s gonna remind you he can ACTUALLY sing whenever he gets the chance\u2026” a third X post read.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Most just use a voice over or heavy tracks behind em, JB just says, naw I\u2019m good. Let\u2019s get it.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The conversation feels a little familiar; it’s probably due to the mixed reactions to Bieber’s Coachella debut earlier this year.<\/p>\n

A setlist focused on newer music and featuring a lengthy YouTube interlude saw some call him the worst Coachella headliner of all time<\/a>, while passionate fans called it “creative genius”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Question is, what did you think of the Biebs’ FIFA appearance?!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first-ever FIFA World Cup halftime show featured a star-studded lineup, but one act in particular is fuelling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-534473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}