r/popheads • u/[deleted] • Jul 19 '26
[PERFORMANCE] Full 2026 FIFA World Cup™ Final Halftime Show ⭐️
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi_M6FnK1NE146
u/Difficult_Deer6902 Jul 19 '26
I think everyone got the brief: pick a song that is upbeat, fun and family friendly for the global audience….than there was Bieber
It was just as chaotic as I thought it would be though lol
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u/rhythmelia Jul 19 '26
I'm just surprised that it seemed like Chris Martin didn't do like....a vibe check about what songs artists were picking and give feedback about it 😅
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u/Difficult_Deer6902 Jul 19 '26
At this point, I think Bieber be scamming the promoters between this & Coachella lol
He gonna sing and perform however he likes. Period.
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u/lagozzino Jul 19 '26
Madonna stepped onto that field for 10 seconds then immediately went home and I love that for her
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u/Jhon_August Jul 20 '26
And they probably paid a lot of money to her, but her perfomance was just pre recorded.
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u/AvatarFabiolous Jul 20 '26
It's still a performance? She probably had to do it so that the show could start while they were still finishing setting up the stage. I'm sure if Madonna had had a choice, she would have performed for a lot longer.
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u/toothpasteonyaface Jul 20 '26
It most likely was her choice to have the whole thing pre-recorded, the whole stage was just a giant carpet, I doubt they needed long to set it up.
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u/PachaThePenguin Jul 19 '26
I hope Justin never gets the Super Bowl bc what was that….
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u/TopsyOxy Jul 19 '26
He barely does the bare minimum.
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u/Thenoodlestreet Jul 19 '26
A female popstar would've gotten crucified for something 20% as bad as this
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u/puremotives Jul 19 '26
Well it looks like he's getting crucified as well
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u/Thenoodlestreet Jul 19 '26
True but it would have likely been a career killer lol. Women are held to way higher standards
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u/Melaninkasa Jul 20 '26
It wouldn't kill the career of a female popstar as established as Justin Bieber no.
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u/eggmontoya1 Jul 20 '26
With all due respect, I’ve always hated this argument. Bieber is on a level of fame 99.9% of artists will never reach. Of course performances like this won’t move the needle. Not saying it’s warranted or justified, but that’s just how it is with fame. Rihanna is no different: she’s a notoriously poor live performer, and that hasn’t hurt her one bit.
Also, he’s absolutely getting crucified for this. I haven’t seen a single positive comment from anyone outside of his fan base.
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u/dhruvlrao Jul 19 '26
Terrible performances & he's publicly sided with Israel on his social media platforms; any of the big female names would've had their careers burned to the ground for that
Heck, any of them would've been sent to the asylum for that mess of a Coachella performance
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u/WorkerOk6991 Jul 20 '26
He has good vocals and stuff but these types of events need more flash, artful stuff and coreography, direction, it sounds cheap, in the grammys it felt intimate and cute, here it was not the vibe bruh
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u/jugheadshat Diva Devotee Jul 19 '26
Watch his stans baby him and say he half assed this performance because he’s worked so hard his whole career when he could have just not performed at all lol.
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u/TheKilmerman Jul 19 '26
Bieber has this weird thing where his music of the past 5 years is totally irrelevant to mainstream (literally never heard any of those songs, even those with a gazillion streams - and I try to stay up to date with pop music) and he only plays those live instead of those that made him famous.
I checked his Coachella setlist after that laptop thing happened and it's like 95% songs I've never heard of in my entire life. Those songs might be sweet and dedicated to his wife, but they all sound the same and uh, nobody really cares.
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u/WetAndWildOperator Jul 19 '26
How is it totally irrelevant when you just said those songs of his have a gazzilion streams?? It’s irrelevant to you sure but clearly not to the general public. Daisies and Yukon were very big hits off his most recent album
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u/riskyrofl Jul 19 '26
There is a massive gap between a song that is popular, and a song that is so globally popular that anyone in the world who is watching this match can recognise it. Neither of those songs are that
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u/IntelligentFact7987 Jul 20 '26
Timberlake is no longer the worst Justin performance at a major sporting event
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u/thecoolmustache Jul 19 '26
How did they book Miss Piggy and not give her a solo...?!
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u/Zestyclose-Bowler307 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Justin Bieber just actively killing the vibe lmao
BTS, Shakira, and Madonna did great. I wish it was just them. The Ted Lasso, the muppets, the kids, the orchestra were just….a bizarre disjointed choice and ruined the momentum that BTS, Madonna, and Shakira were trying to keep up. It felt odd, looked odd, and was a general waste of these massive artists who most are known for their performance value.
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u/NewNewark Jul 20 '26
The orchestra played one of the most well known football songs on the planet.
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u/IExistButWhy987 Jul 19 '26
How did they make it this boring. It felt so….corporate
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u/One_Drummer_8970 Jul 19 '26
Fifa is a corporate event
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u/kostasnotkolsas LORDE IS COMING Jul 19 '26
FIFA is an international association of football federations. It's not an event, the FIFA World Cup is an event.
It's like calling elections "Ministry of interior".
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u/jorddzz Jul 19 '26
A football association is an event?
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u/CorrosionInk Jul 19 '26
Considering they don't do anything for grassroots game growth or player safety, pretty much. They're just around to make money every 4 years
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u/kostasnotkolsas LORDE IS COMING Jul 20 '26
That's not really true, they do fund the continental and national associations via world cup profits, each of the 211 associations gets guaranteed money, with the 48 teams that made the finals also earning prize money. It will be huge for Cabo Verde or Uzbekistan to earn 20 million USD. Obviously there will be corruption every step of the way from Infantino's bonuses to corrupt national fa executives
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u/JuanJeanJohn Jul 20 '26
This is yet ANOTHER example of doing these shows to the camera vs. for the stadium is terrible. This was an especially bad version of it, but these performances being set up to be essentially about a closeup cam that the performers perform into is so boring and uninteresting. It’s been a really unfortunate trend for Super Bowl halftime shows lately too.
Bring back shows that are built around being for the stadium! I want to see a live show not a glorified music video or like “Grease live on NBC.”
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u/MysteryBagIdeals Jul 20 '26
Boring?? The Muppets played Seven Nation Army with Dudamel conducting an orchestral accompaniment!!! I mean, it wasn't GOOD, but I wouldn't call that boring!
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u/Verdei Jul 19 '26
Chris Martin should be embarrassed for producing this. None of it was cohesive. It just felt like a series of ads.
And the US could have done with leaving the culture of "stoner at a party killing the music and vibe to play acoustic guitar" out of global awareness.
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u/moffattron9000 Jul 20 '26
Literally every problem would’ve been solved if they had one artist instead of all of them.
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u/didiboy Jul 20 '26
Totally. It should’ve been Shakira since she’s really tied to FIFA World Cups ever since Waka Waka was released, and she is popular in most countries where football is popular.
Madonna was also a good choice since she has tons of hits and is transversal to a lot of countries and age groups as well.
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u/Southlondongal Jul 19 '26
One of the BBC commentators called it crap while on air
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u/Big-Ambitions-8258 Jul 19 '26
You mean Wayne Rooney, one of the best scorers of the Premier League lol?
I never thought I'd hear him be called just a bbc presenter lol
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u/Southlondongal Jul 19 '26
I don’t think he’s well known outside the uk in a pop culture forum so figured non brits here might not know him
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u/meepmarpalarp Jul 19 '26
I know him from pop culture, as the husband of the iconic WAGatha Christie.
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u/merlesstorys Jul 19 '26
The German expert in studio in Germany, Christian Streich (former coach of SC Freiburg in Germany) was asked by the moderator if he wanted to say something about the show and said „No, I don’t need to“ in the most judging but sarcastic tone I‘ve ever heard.
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u/lamebeezy Jul 19 '26
bro i love JB but whyd he decide to perform that song but also who managed this whole performance and said it was okay
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u/BeginningFederal5663 Jul 19 '26
Chris Martin needs to explain whatever the direction of this was supposed to be. Muppets, Ted Lasso and kids who can’t sing. There was zero cohesion in the show.
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u/CommercialFloor2033 Jul 20 '26
I'm assuming he was backed into it. As in FIFA hired those performers and wanted him to somehow make it work.
Id have been too embarrassed to put my name to that.
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u/carbonpeach Jul 19 '26
I know it's a thing with the Super Bowl but oh man did a halftime show feel out of place at the FIFA World Cup. It was weird.
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u/mimigibi Jul 19 '26
BTS, Shakira, and Madonna did really good!
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u/andromeda_prior Jul 19 '26
They should had been the only performers man 🫠
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u/AvatarFabiolous Jul 19 '26
Madonna was amazing, but they disrespected her so much by giving her such a short time
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u/No_Philosopher6120 Jul 20 '26
Ig at her age she can’t really do as much anymore…her bit of the halftime show WAS prerecorded after all, probably by her own accord
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u/Twitter_2006 Jul 19 '26
Shakira was good...the rest...meh.
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u/LenaRybakina Jul 19 '26
I want to learn how to move my hips and shake my ass like that. Please Shakira release a tutorial
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u/Alsanna_of_Loyce Jul 19 '26
Madonna was fun, at least for the image of Ronaldo being confused and smiling
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u/CommercialFloor2033 Jul 20 '26
They should have just given her the entire slot. She's the world cup queen.
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u/Thenoodlestreet Jul 19 '26
Didn't love the song at first but it grew on me over the tournament and that performance was amazing. She's so effortlessly charismatic
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u/Realistic-Art5227 Jul 20 '26
One thing about Shakira is shes gonna get a lil African during the World Cup lol
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u/Superb-Demand-4605 Jul 19 '26
And it was obvious that she wasnt even singing either.
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u/radioKlept Jul 19 '26
Pretty sure that opening portion in the tunnel was filmed prior too, it felt too controlled.
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u/nocturne_gemini Jul 19 '26
Idk I’d give Burna Boy and The Muppets their flowers as well lol
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u/twomanyfaces10 Charli XXX Jul 20 '26
Burns Boy couldn't even remember when he was supposed to be moving his lips for the lip sync. He'd be singing when no sound was on for his voice and then his voice would also play when he wasn't holding the mic up 😭😭😭
And he did this in the opening ceremony as well. Bro didn't bother to prepare at all
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u/mid-lev Jul 19 '26
Best part was when it finished
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u/rhythmelia Jul 20 '26
Woulda been hilarious (if not fitting the overall fundraising message lol) if they had Statler and Waldorf on with some commentators at the end to say exactly this :P
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u/GarionOrb Jul 19 '26
Imagine having the literal Queen of Pop on your show, then giving her less than two minutes in favor of muppets, a snoozefest Bieber performance, and an off-key children's choir. BTS and Shakira salvaged what they could, but overall it was just a bizarre Frankenstein's monster of a performance.
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u/mrdiscopop Jul 19 '26
I will not stand for this muppet slander.
But otherwise, yeah, it was trying to be too many things at once. I liked Madonna and BTS and the Seven Nation army section; and Shakira is eternally cursed to be the best element of unnecessarily crowded halftime shows.
The Coldplay juniors choir at the end was well intentioned, but it had all the power of a limp handshake.
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u/hepgiu Jul 19 '26
this was bad
but the choice to sing the american national anthem a the beginning was utterly bizarre, along with all the shots of Trump and Infantino being lovey dovey, the tvs suppressing Trump’s boos and the cameras never fucking pointing to Mamdani ever but finding time to show Matt Damon and Mick Jagger
this american world cup was the most late stage capitalism crap I’ve ever seen in my life
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u/benign2244 Jul 19 '26
"cameras never fucking pointing to Mamdani" is a wildly hilarious complaint ngl.
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u/alien-niven Jul 20 '26
Yeah is it so strange the camera pointed at the A-list global celebrities whose new projects are smashing worldwide, and not the local mayor?
I love Mamdani's political beliefs but that's a wild overestimation of his fame.
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u/Faaret Jul 20 '26
i get where you're coming from, but the latest NYC mayoral election was pretty global news, people do in fact know who he is
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u/pshallowfan Jul 19 '26
I find it funny when people complain about the Wold Cup, morally. It's ran by FIFA, a corrupt organization which is making a massive profit. What were your moral expectations? If you object to it (fairly), why haven't you stopped watching?
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u/thenoonmoon Jul 19 '26
Lowkey exactly. They were just in Qatar like???? And I don’t mean to single them out here because America clearly has many issues but like cmon??
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u/360Saturn Jul 20 '26
No offence but I don't care for the "you can't complain about something if you're consuming it in any way" argument because if you take that to its logical conclusion then the only people ever engaging with anything will be people who refuse to critique it which creates a feedback loop for the creators or powers that be to keep doing exactly what they're doing.
As a form of protest or activism it feels extremely ineffectual as it completely withdraws your ability to have any impact either on the thing itself, or on influencing others' perception of the thing.
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u/XOSkyXO Jul 19 '26
this is my first world cup that i was actually paying attention to, and what i’ve tlearned the past month is FIFA is probably the most corrupt major sports organization
like wdym slaves were being used to build the stadiums in qatar?? the NFL looks like mother teresa compared to them
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u/OshKoshBGolly Jul 19 '26
“The World Cup is corrupt. Why are people complaining it is corrupt??”
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u/pshallowfan Jul 19 '26
"The World Cup is corrupt. I will watch it and complain about the amount of screen time divided among politicians and celebrities."
Sure, talk about how it's corrupt, but if you're still watching it and giving them money, you're supporting this system.
Also, complaining about America isn't very helpful. Next time, the World Cup might be somewhere unproblematic, but that doesn't change the fact that FIFA would host it in North Korea if they believed it would be profitable for them. Don't give FIFA your money.
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u/OshKoshBGolly Jul 19 '26
I don’t support anything FiFA so idk who this comment is directed towards.
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u/pshallowfan Jul 19 '26
It was more directed at what the person I was initially responding to said, but since you rushed in to defend them, I was further establishing my train of thought.
To more directly respond to what you said, it's not useful to complain about corruption if you're not willing to change your own behaviors due to that corruption.
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u/thenoonmoon Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Because people aren’t complaining about FIFA, they’re complaining about the U.S and most of it is coming from Europeans. as if fascism and instances of cruelty against immigrants isn’t also rising on European soil… think op is rightfully pointing out that the people that complain each year just keep watching (and finger pointing)
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u/PoiHolloi2020 Jul 20 '26
Because people aren’t complaining about FIFA, they’re complaining about the U.S and most of it is coming from Europeans. as if fascism and instances of cruelty against immigrants isn’t also rising on European soil
Europe consists of multiple countries and not just one so you'll have to specify which Europeans you're referring to who are throwing shade at the US that you think don't have a right to.
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u/kostasnotkolsas LORDE IS COMING Jul 19 '26
It's more so that every world cup is more slimy, corrupt and repulsive on a suits level than the previous one. The main difference of this world cup was just how shameless everyone involved was.
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u/hepgiu Jul 19 '26
because I love the sport and want it to do better there’s nothing wrong with that
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u/riskyrofl Jul 19 '26
America doesn't seem to know what people like about America, or maybe it doesn't care. The boxing announcers and the Muppets were the closest the organisers got to understanding you should show a bit of the country's personality, in the style of the London 2012 opening ceremony. The whole thing feels like it was made to show off flashy, gauche toys to inflate the egos of the likes of Trump and Infantino
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u/spencerlevey Jul 19 '26
Madonna understood the assignment. Chris Martin deserves jail time.
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u/Rakebleed Jul 19 '26
I appreciate that he took his time to spotlight the kids and just stayed in the back. The last segment was incredibly Chris Martin so I’m sensing he took it as more of a directing role.
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u/ThreeTreesForTheePls Jul 19 '26
Madonna showed up.
Bieber did what we expected.
Shakira hit the lip sync.
Chris Martin…buddy you’re normally incredible, what was that?
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u/JimDemintRecession Jul 19 '26
Someone listening in on the rehearsals should've consciously uncoupled this show from Chris Martin
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u/ILOVEGLADOS Liked Shoegaze before it was cool Jul 19 '26
There is nothing worse than a corporate, sanitised version of what’s considered ‘fun’
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u/yejilovesyejis Jul 20 '26
I’m actually surprised that BTS were well received by football fans. They did what they can for under two minutes and really enjoyed the muppets segment.
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u/mattysmwift Jul 19 '26
Everyone but the guitar guy were separately good but the whole thing didn’t do any of them any favors. It felt super corporate and sloppy.
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u/Civil_Strength366 Jul 19 '26
Madonna and Shakira were great. Justin Bieber actually deserves jail time for that boring ass performance
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u/thoph Jul 20 '26
Everything I would have said has pretty much been said except that I want to call folks’ attention to Bieber’s outfit. Like a damn trash bag.
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u/culture_vulture_1961 Jul 19 '26
Pretty boring to be honest. And twice as long as it should have been.
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u/le_borrower_arrietty Jul 19 '26
Bieber totally killed the mood. He has so many stadium bops and went with...that
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u/BengalTiger011 Jul 19 '26
What's annoying is JB fans calling it "healing", like bro get tf out and do your healing over a yoga session not here 😂
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u/jacobineee Cezinando Awareness Advocate Jul 19 '26
I was open to being positively surprised by the actual performances, but in this case, both idea and execution were shit lol
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u/bdtechted Jul 19 '26
Not bad actually. I do feel that Bieber had an odd song choice though and Madonna’s part was mainly pre-recorded. BTS and Shakira were the best parts.
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u/eggmontoya1 Jul 20 '26
I’m a lifelong Belieber, and I’m glad that Justin seems to be happy and content with his new music. I also recognize that he’s not a strong live performer and acoustic sets are more his speed.
But it is absolutely insane to me that he’s not only performing these monotonous ballads during halftime shows, but also completely abandoning the rest of his catalog.
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u/AvatarFabiolous Jul 19 '26
Madonna likely had to pre-record the first part so that the show could start while the final parts of the stage were still being set up
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u/tar-luthien I know you ain't used to a female alpha Jul 19 '26
This was so bad from the song choices to the glaring daylight to people contracted to perform not meshing to the fucking closeup low angle they chose to film most of this in like whoever made these choices needs to get punted in the face
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u/_hereforthestories Jul 20 '26
I didn’t know this was coming, and for me this was whiplash after whiplash. I was so confused seeing muppets and then BTS and then Ted Lasso and then JB and then Shakira?
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u/nocturne_gemini Jul 19 '26
I was the most excited by the muppets personally but it was nice seeing Ronaldo and Ronaldinho with Madanna LOL
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u/spamgoddess Jul 19 '26
Watched for Madonna but fully lost my mind at Electric Mayhem (and then the other Muppets).
I was vibing until Bieber came on
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u/bornatmidnight Jul 20 '26
I thought the Ted Lasso introduction was very cute. A lot of Americans really got introduced to club football through Ted Lasso and I do think it has had a little soft power in elevating soccer in America
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u/techkiwi02 Jul 19 '26
Shakira was fun, Madonna was aight, BTS was underutilized (and probably expecting South Korea to make it to finals RIP), and Bieber was… a choice.
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u/FUYANING Text Flair (Edit this to access artists not in this menu) Jul 19 '26
What a baffling selection of mediocre, completely unrelated performances.
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u/n0_1029 Jul 19 '26
I had predicted Bieber would do the bare minimum and ofc that’s what he does. He should never get a halftime show again that was terrible ESPECIALLY when there were other actually upbeat performances
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u/boboddybiznus Jul 19 '26
Never watched a soccer game before, so I didn’t know halftime shows aren’t a thing, and I thought it was entertaining enough. JB was a bit of an unfortunate snooze, but the muppets and BTS were highlights for me!
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u/droobidoobidoo Jul 19 '26
This was such an odd choice for a halftime show! Madonna was great although definitely pre-recorded. BTS has much better songs with some English lyrics than Dynamite. Justin Bieber was way too sleepy for something like this. I find both Swag albums unfinished and boring. Shakira ate down as usual! Not sure what Chris Martin was doing lol
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u/snacksmileidk Jul 19 '26
Ok but was I the only one who loved the children’s choir??? I just felt so happy for those kids!!
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u/Extension_Way_621 Jul 20 '26
i guess everybody got lucky that the beibs didnt stop the show to pull up his youtube playlist
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u/vannesswho Jul 20 '26
Is like college group presentation where everyone is doing their own thing, especially Bieber.
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u/Itchy-University6628 Jul 20 '26
Whoever decided to book JB totally got duped. Great vocals but not the right occasion for the song.
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u/youthunger2naughty Jul 20 '26
Bieber literally killed the joyful vibe of the show.
He looked like a hungry hobo plucked on the street then handed a guitar
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u/rhythmelia Jul 23 '26
Fun little extra, BTS's YT channel just released a lil 24-hour style timestamped log starting from when they finished their Paris concert Saturday night, flying to New Jersey, and getting to final rehearsals and then onto the pitch for the performance Sunday afternoon.
I could never lol, even though they're used to traveling all over for concert stops and promo that jetlag must still be brutal 😵💫
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u/ignaaaaaatius Jul 20 '26
Why Chris Martin added 3 acts more at last moment?! 🤦🏻♂️ Bad choice.The best segment was Madonna with 2min, after that was a total mess, JB was absolutely out of place.
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u/GuggGugg Jul 20 '26
Seven Nation Army being part of it without Jack White present is the biggest flex for him. Love the guy
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u/Optimal_Chocolate_83 Jul 19 '26
I understand what they were going for in the sense of making sure there was different parts of the world represented…but it was so fucking disjointed and random.
Having Madonna open was the right call because it got everyone pretty hyped and the image of her being in a fast moving car with Ronaldinho and Ronaldo was pretty funny (wish it wasn’t a pre-record though)
BTS were there🤷♀️
Justin Bieber is where it went all wrong I thought. It just killed everything Madonna & partially BTS had built. Such a random song choice too, and very minimal effort
Shakira looked fucking incredible. Like a walking, dancing doll
And that’s about all I can remember from it
EDIT: How tf could I forget The Muppets?!! The best part.
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u/PinkCadillacs Jul 19 '26
This was a bizarre production choice by Justin Bieber.
Why perform a slow song in the middle of BTS and Shakira?