Madonna, Shakira, BTS to headline World Cup final half-time show

Coldplay’s Chris Martin will curate the show during the July 19 final at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, FIFA says.Madonna, Shakira and K-pop megastars BTS will headline a Super Bowl-style half-time show at the World Cup final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, FIFA has confirmed.Coldplay’s Chris Martin will curate the show, which is a first for a football World Cup final, but the programme details released on Thursday have raised concerns about how long half-time will be.“This will be a historic moment for the FIFA World Cup and a show befitting the biggest sporting event in the world,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said on Instagram.The move mirrors the show held during the final of the 2024 Copa America in Miami, when Colombian star Shakira performed at half-time at the Hard Rock Stadium.There was also a half-time show at last year’s FIFA Club World Cup final, also at MetLife Stadium, which stretched the break in excess of the regulation 15 minutes.Infantino added that FIFA also planned to “take over” New York’s Times Square on the final weekend of the World Cup.The biggest-ever World Cup, with 48 teams, kicks off on June 11 in the United States, Canada and Mexico.Infantino announced in March last year that there would be “the first-ever half-time show at a FIFA World Cup final”.He did not say at the time who would be performing or how long the show would last.The half-time extravaganza will support FIFA’s Global Citizen Education Fund, an initiative working to raise $100m for children worldwide during the World Cup.Last week Shakira teased the new official song for the World Cup, releasing a brief video of the track filmed at Brazil’s iconic Maracana Stadium.