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It was everything Chris Martin’s opinion.
In 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the leader of Coldplay named Hugh Evans, CEO of Global Citizen, who organizes the Global Citizen Festival, is something new. “Wouldn’t it be amazing,” Evans recalls Martin saying, “if we did the first World Cup halftime show?” Evans agreed, and contacted FIFA president Gianni Infantino at the organization’s headquarters in Switzerland to sell him on Martin’s proposal. He didn’t have to.
Infantino had the same idea – and he was a fan of Coldplay. “So he had already decided that he wanted to work with Coldplay and that he wanted to make that dream come true,” says Evans.
The results of the discussion, began to be heard in Sunday’s World Cup final between Spain and Argentina at the New York Stadium in New Jersey, is a big but long 11-minute show featuring Justin Bieber, Madonna, BTS, and Shakira. They will be joined by Coldplay and a singer from Staten Island’s PS22 school, and he looked and millions of people in homes, bars, and street corners around the world.
The show is part of an effort to raise $100 million to support Global Citizen education for young people around the world. FIFA is donating one dollar from every ticket sold during the tournament to the fund, and Shakira is donating a tribute from her World Cup song with Burna Boy-“Dai Dai” to try again.
Not that all World Cup fans are happy to see the spectacle. Football fans have been speculating that the final will feature a half-time show for months. The World Cup has never done that before, the argument goes, and it doesn’t need to now. Given that halftime shows are equal to and the Super Bowlsome fans think that having half time is part of an attempt to “Americanize” the World Cup, or to make it more interesting for viewers in countries where football is not very popular. Some, for example, resent things like “hydration breaks” which just seems like another way to get more views on ads.
Tiffany Naiman, director of the Berry Gordy Music Industry Center at UCLA, said: “So when FIFA unveils an 11-minute show, featuring Madonna and Justin Bieber, with Tom Cruise included in the closing ceremony, it counts for some as sending America’s televised attention.”
Oh, Tom Cruise. As he did with the closing ceremony for the 2024 Olympic Games in ParisCruise is it is designed to be visible at the closing ceremony of the World Cup before the final match.
Naiman emphasizes that while some may fear the inclusion of a half-American tradition in hosting the event, it is being done by an international group of artists. Bieber is Canadian, after all, and his home country is the host of the Cup. Most of the deals are not from the US. “At the end of the day, what’s being sold around the world is not American culture as much as it is made out to be,” he says. “FIFA is borrowing the language of Super Bowl while filling it with artists who show the place of his audience. “
Massive international attention was essential for Evans, and it has attracted at least one international celebrity: The BTS Army. Members of the Army have been calling it quits in recent weeks signature purple hearts. He’s also helped Global Citizen get closer to its fundraising goal: He raised $40,000 for the Global Citizen fund in its first week “without even being asked,” Evans says.
Interest in the half-time show is also evident in Kalshi and Polymarket, which has seen many billions in the World Cup market prediction, according to CNBC reports. Another Kalshi market had a rendition of Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” that was voted best of the show. Polymarket he chose “Dai Dai.” The latter looks good because it is the official song of the World Cup, and it features Burna Boy, who should also perform.
