Madonna And BTS Among Headliners At The World Cup's First Ever Halftime Show

Even the biggest football-sceptics among us now have a reason to get excited about the upcoming World Cup.

The global tournament is due to take place across the United States, Canada and Mexico this summer, and will culminate in a final featuring a Super Bowl-esque Halftime Show, the first in Fifa’s history.

And just wait until you check out the line-up.

K-pop sensations BTS, chart-topping superstar Shakira and the Queen of Pop herself, Madonna, were all unveiled as co-headliners of the World Cup Halftime Show on Thursday morning.

The show is curated by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, and was announced in a social media post featuring characters from both The Muppets and Sesame Street (the first time the two former Jim Henson Company characters have shared the screen in decades, since the latter was bought by Disney in the early 2000s).

Watch the extremely cute video for yourself below:

In the lead-up to the announcement, Shakira teased last week that she had a new song to coincide with the World Cup, following the huge success of 2010’s Waka Waka (This Time For Africa).

The new track, Dai Dai, will serve as the official anthem of the World Cup, and will seemingly feature the singer Burna Boy.

Shakira previously co-headlined the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2020, where she shared the stage with Jennifer Lopez.

Fellow headliner Madonna is also a former Super Bowl performer, setting a new record for viewing figures with her halftime set in 2012 (though this record has since been bested by several other Super Bowl headliners).

Like Shakira, she has also been teasing new music, recently unveiling the Sabrina Carpenter duet Bring Your Love as the lead single from her much-hyped album Confessions II, a follow-up to the hugely popular Confessions On A Dance Floor.

The 2026 World Cup final is due to take place on Sunday 19 July.