Football’s global governing body FIFA made a landmark announcement Thursday, confirming that three of the world’s biggest music acts — pop icon Madonna, Colombian superstar Shakira, and K-pop phenomenon BTS — will top the bill for the first-ever official half-time show at a men’s FIFA World Cup final. The star-studded event will take place on July 19 at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, modeled after the iconic Super Bowl half-time spectacle that has become a cultural touchstone. Overseeing curation of the groundbreaking performance is Chris Martin, frontman of British alternative rock band Coldplay, though the announcement has already sparked discussion and some concern over potential delays to match flow from an extended break. The 2026 FIFA World Cup, the first iteration of the expanded 48-team tournament, will be co-hosted across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, kicking off its opening round on June 11. The idea for a dedicated World Cup final half-time show was first teased by FIFA President Gianni Infantino in March 2024, when he pledged an unprecedented entertainment spectacle for the tournament but shared no details about performers or run time. On Thursday, Infantino framed the upcoming show as a historic milestone for the global competition, writing on his Instagram that the event would be “befitting the biggest sporting event in the world.” This step by FIFA follows a pattern established at recent major CONMEBOL and FIFA events: Shakira headlined the half-time show at the 2024 Copa America final held in Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, and the 2024 FIFA Club World Cup final at MetLife Stadium also featured a half-time performance that pushed the break well past the standard 15-minute regulation length. Beyond the on-field performance, Infantino revealed Thursday that FIFA plans to host a major fan activation that will “take over” New York City’s iconic Times Square during the final weekend of the tournament, bringing the energy of the World Cup to one of the most visited public spaces in the United States. The half-time show will also serve a philanthropic purpose: all proceeds and associated fundraising efforts will support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, an initiative that aims to raise $100 million to expand access to education for children across the globe over the course of the tournament. Shakira, who has the longest and most high-profile ties to the World Cup among the announced performers, has been building hype for her 2026 tournament involvement for weeks. Last week, the Grammy-winning artist dropped a teaser for the official 2026 World Cup song, titled “Dai Dai,” sharing a 67-second clip filmed on the pitch of Rio de Janeiro’s legendary Maracana Stadium — the site of two of the most iconic men’s World Cup finals in tournament history. In the teaser, Shakira holds the 2026 World Cup’s official match ball, the Trionda, while performing snippets of the new track in English alongside backup dancers wearing colors representing the United States, Colombia, and other participating nations. “Dai Dai” was produced in collaboration with award-winning Nigerian afrobeats star Burna Boy, and is scheduled for full official release this Thursday. The teaser has already been shared widely across the official FIFA World Cup social media accounts, closing with a rallying message for fans: “We’re ready!” This will be Shakira’s fifth major World Cup-related appearance: the singer has performed at two prior final matches (2006 and 2014) and recorded the genre-crossing 2010 World Cup anthem “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” which remains one of the best-selling World Cup theme songs of all time. Ahead of filming the 2026 teaser, Shakira drew a crowd of more than two million fans to a free open-air concert on Rio’s Copacabana Beach, underscoring her enduring global popularity as the tournament approaches.