Overview
- Organizers announced Wednesday that Justin Bieber and Burna Boy will join Madonna, Shakira, BTS and Coldplay for the halftime show at the World Cup final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium.
- The production is scheduled to run 11 minutes to fit inside football’s 15-minute halftime rule and to address concerns after a roughly 24-minute halftime pause at the same stadium last year.
- Chris Martin is serving as artistic director and Gustavo Dudamel will take part as conductor, with Coldplay performing alongside a New York public school choir and appearances by characters from The Muppets and Sesame Street.
- FIFA and the NGO Global Citizen are positioning the show as a major fundraising drive for education, with Global Citizen calling it the largest artist mobilization for a cause since Live Aid.
- Organizers acknowledge that set installation and removal could require brief extensions beyond a normal halftime and that broadcasters and teams will be watching how the staging is executed on July 19.