Music makes the people come together, and the entire world came together on Sunday afternoon for the first-ever FIFA World Cup™ Final Halftime Show.
The 11-minute spectacular started with Madonna singing her hit “Music,” mashed up with one of her new songs, “Danceteria.” She started singing in the tunnels underneath New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, and then continued while riding in the back of a dune buggy driven by Brazilian football legends Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. Madonna and the two players then walked out onto the field as she finished the song.
The Muppets’ band, Electric Mayhem, came next, performing the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” alongside dozens of dancers, plus musicians from the New York Philharmonic and Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. That segued into BTS performing their hit “Dynamite.”
Next up, Ted Lasso stars Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt reprised their roles as Ted Lasso and Coach Beard. As Ted, Sudeikis said that the next part of the show needed “heart, y’know? Someone that has some soul. Someone who can bring the love.” He and Hunt then called Justin Bieber out onto the field, with Sudeikis as Ted saying, “All right, young man, let’s go! It’s your big shot! Go on out there, don’t be nervous, make us proud.”
Justin, accompanied only by an acoustic guitar, walked onto the field and sang “Everything Hallelujah” while Hunt held up a sign that read “BELIEBE.” “It’s the World Cup, Hallelujah!” he concluded. Shakira and Burna Boy then took the stage to sing the official song of the World Cup, “Dai Dai.”
The big finale featured the PS22 Chorus, Chris Martin of Coldplay, the Muppets, Justin, BTS, Shakira and more, all singing “We Dance,” an original song written by Coldplay for the occasion. The finale also introduced a new Global Citizen initiative called believeinlove.org, which hopes to inspire people all over the world to participate in small acts of love. Fireworks capped off the whole performance, which you can watch now on YouTube.
Post Malone performed during the closing ceremony ahead of the game, Jennifer Hudson sang the national anthem, and British pop star Robbie Williams, Nicole Scherzinger and Italian star Laura Pausini joined together to sing another FIFA song, “Desire.”
Spain won the World Cup over Argentina, 1-0.
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