The 2026 FIFA World Cup will create history with the inclusion of a Super Bowl-style halftime show in the final game. It would be the first time in 96-year history that fans will experience a major spectacle of entertainment right in the middle of the world’s most-watched sporting event. This exciting change will come into effect in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, where the final match will be played on July 19, 2026.
This is going to be a very different halftime show. Unlike previous World Cup finals that were strictly football, it will, for the first time, be intertwined with top-tier entertainment. Many see it as adding a new dimension to intrigue an even wider audience, as FIFA seeks to give an improved experience to more than 5 billion viewers expected to tune in globally.
FIFA finally teamed up with Global Citizen, an advocacy group known to host high-profile events for social causes. Global Citizen will produce the half-time show as part of FIFA’s vision that merges sport with positive change. This is not all about entertainment; this uses the global platform on issues related to the eradication of extreme poverty, improving the education of children, and the prevailing crisis of climate change. Global Citizen, which has produced several large-scale concerts mobilizing for social causes, will also be partnering with FIFA for live events in coming years, starting with the 2025 Club World Cup.
Considering music and performance alone, the halftime show promises much more. It intends to carry on board some of the major key social issues facing current global society, making it a meaningful evening rather than an entertaining one alone. By shedding light on causes, FIFA and Global Citizen work toward bringing awareness and action at mass scale. World Cup, therefore, will become a platform for athletic excellence as well as social advocacy combined in one setting.
This she said in last night’s 2024 Global Citizen Festival in New York, where famous faces like Hugh Jackman and DJ Khaled helped build anticipation of what’s in store. At least for the performing artists, the lineup remains a closely guarded secret-speculation builds among fans and the media that includes some of the top global artists. Both are promising the show will link music and football lovers in most diverse parts of the world in a way that’s going to add an extra layer to the World Cup final.
The halftime show in the FIFA event is most definitely inspired by the legendary performances during NFL’s Super Bowl, which have generally gained cultural phenomena status. Super Bowl halftime shows are always high-energy and star-studded, and FIFA wants to somehow recreate that feeling on a global scale. With the World Cup drawing in an even larger audience worldwide, this halftime show may very well break all records for the most-viewed entertainment event with projected viewership of 5 billion people. Already, some fans speculate that this addition to the tournament might raise their experience to a whole new level at the World Cup.
