"We don't want it." Three words. That's all one X user needed to sum up the reaction to FIFA's announcement that the World Cup final will include a halftime show featuring Shakira, Madonna, and K-pop group BTS, curated by Coldplay's Chris Martin.
FIFA confirmed Thursday that the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium will host what is essentially a Super Bowl-style entertainment break — the first of its kind in World Cup history. The performance is tied to the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, and President Gianni Infantino has been pushing it as "bringing together music and football on the biggest stage in sport for a very special cause."
Football fans are not buying the charity wrapping.
The Super Bowl problem
The core issue isn't really about Shakira or Madonna or BTS. It's about what this signals. The Super Bowl halftime show works because American football builds in a long break and its fanbase skews entertainment-first. Football — the global version — does not have that culture. Fifteen minutes at halftime is for tactics, water, and recovery. Not pyrotechnics.
As one X user put it: "Halftime show at the World Cup final feels like FIFA trying to be the Super Bowl. Players just want to focus and recover." Another went further: "Genuinely nobody cares. Its not American Handball where people only watch the Super Bowl for the half time show. People are watching the World Cup to watch football and the players."
There's a logistical absurdity here too. A standard World Cup halftime is 15 minutes. Squeezing three global acts into that window — with stage setup, sound checks, and teardown — either means the show runs long and the players freeze on the touchline, or everyone gets five minutes and the whole thing feels rushed and hollow.
Hosting the tournament comes at a cultural cost
This is what happens when the United States hosts. The instinct to Americanise the experience is almost reflexive. It's worth separating that from the lineup itself — Shakira's connection to football through Waka Waka gives her some legitimacy here, and her return for the World Cup final would genuinely land for a generation of fans. Madonna and BTS feel like a different calculation entirely: demographics, streaming numbers, global social reach.
- Shakira performed Waka Waka for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa
- Madonna and BTS have no particular football connection
- The Champions League final on May 30 opted for a pre-match concert with the Killers instead
The Champions League model is telling. Pre-match entertainment respects the game. A halftime show interrupts it. UEFA made a choice. FIFA made a different one.
Whether the show actually happens smoothly on July 19 is another question entirely. But the backlash is already here, and it's not coming from people who hate music. It's coming from people who think the World Cup final should be about football.
"I hate that us is trying to make everything americanified," wrote one user. That sentiment, however bluntly expressed, is probably shared by millions who'll be watching — and fuming — in living rooms from Bogotá to Lagos to Seoul.
