{"id":701194,"date":"2026-07-20T07:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T07:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/701194\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T07:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T07:48:11","slug":"fans-rip-madonna-bieber-bts-and-shakira-world-cup-halftime-look-how-they-massacred-my-beautiful-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/701194\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans rip Madonna, Bieber, BTS and Shakira World Cup halftime: \u2018Look how they massacred my beautiful game\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The first ever halftime show at a Fifa World Cup final <\/a>has divided the internet, for sure.<\/p>\n

The eclectic medley of performances was opened by Madonna, who sang her 2000 hit \u201cMusic\u201d while accompanied by Brazilian football legends Ronaldinho and Ronaldo, who won the World Cup together in 2002.<\/p>\n

That was followed by The Muppets and Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel performing a version of The White Stripes\u2019 \u201cSeven Nation Army\u201d, K-pop boy band BTS doing their 2020 single \u201cDynamite\u201d, cameo appearances from Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso and Brendan Hunt as Coach Beard, Justin Bieber singing an acoustic version of 2025 single \u201cEverything Hallelujah\u201d, Shakira and Burna Boy\u2019s World Cup anthem \u201cDai Dai\u201d and finally Coldplay accompanied by a child choir.<\/p>\n

In total, the half-time break lasted 27 minutes and 19 seconds, delaying the restart of the match between Argentina and Spain and leaving many fans fuming. <\/a>In the laws of the game, governed by IFAB (the International Football Association Board), it states half-time breaks should \u201cnot exceed 15 minutes\u201d. <\/p>\n

One of many X users who criticized the show posted a The Godfather meme and wrote: \u201cHalftime show at World Cup final. Look how they massacred my beautiful game,\u201d mimicking what Don Corleone says after his eldest, Sonny, is gunned down in a hail of bullets.<\/p>\n

\"BrazilianBrazilian legends Ronaldinho and Ronaldo joined Madonna during the first ever Fifa World Cup final halftime show (Reuters)<\/p>\n

Oasis singer Liam Gallagher was among those weighing in, writing<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s a good job I\u2019ve got my spiritual socks on or that halftime entertainment could have tipped me over the edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others argued that the show would be detrimental to the players, with one user writing<\/a>: \u201cThe players should have not tolerate that. It’s the biggest game of most of their careers and they should not be bending their routines around half-hour half-time shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, some viewers were left impressed by the spectacle. One wrote<\/a>: \u201cDidn\u2019t even know there was a World Cup halftime show and it\u2019s better than any Super Bowl halftime show I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, some took the opportunity to poke fun at certain players, with one observing<\/a>: \u201cMadonna with more World Cup Final appearances than Cristiano Ronaldo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former England player Wayne Rooney described the show as \u201ccrap\u201d on the BBC\u2019s coverage, while Gary Neville said he \u201cenjoyed it,\u201d with ITV Sport colleague Wright claiming that Burna Boy \u201csaved it\u201d with his performance alongside Shakira.<\/p>\n

But Roy Keane was also underwhelmed: \u201cIt was a bit of an anti-climax, but listen, it\u2019s so nice to see Shakira.\u201d<\/p>\n

The half-time show has created controversy for Fifa, who have shifted the structure of the sport during the tournament, including hydration breaks to divide each half into two intervals, much like American sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-701194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}