Justin Bieber and Burna Boy join inaugural World Cup halftime show

By THE STAR STAFF

Justin Bieber and Burna Boy will perform at the inaugural halftime show for the World Cup final on July 19, FIFA and the show’s producer, Global Citizen, announced on Wednesday, joining an already crowded and eclectic lineup that includes Shakira, Madonna and BTS.

FIFA, the global governing body of soccer that every four years hosts the World Cup, hopes that by introducing a halftime musical performance at this year’s final it can replicate the broad cultural success of the Super Bowl. The World Cup final has long been a quadrennial spectacle. According to FIFA, more than 1 billion people viewed at least a part of the last final, in 2022. This year’s game is set to begin at 3 p.m. Eastern at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The show’s artists were selected by Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay, who in May announced Shakira, Madonna and BTS through a video that included characters from Sesame Street and the Muppets. Coldplay, conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the PS 22 Chorus, an elementary school chorus from Staten Island, New York, will also appear in the show, Global Citizen said.

A standard halftime break at FIFA-regulated matches lasts 15 minutes. Despite the multiple acts that have now been announced, FIFA and Global Citizen, a nonprofit organization that stages large-scale concerts to spotlight issues like hunger and poverty, have said the halftime show will last 11 minutes.

The inclusion of Bieber, as a co-headliner, and Burna Boy, as an additional performer, means that R&B and Afrobeats will further expand the show’s constellation of pop, Latin and Korean music.

Burna Boy, a Grammy-winning Afrobeats artist from Nigeria, is featured on Shakira’s song “Dai Dai,” the official anthem for this year’s World Cup. The duo performed it at the tournament’s opening game last month in Mexico City. In 2023, Burna Boy was a headliner of the halftime show at the NBA All-Star Game.