FIFA’s first-ever final halftime show delivered a spectacle built on speed: an 11-minute sequence designed to make a roster of global superstars feel momentarily inevitable, then gone before the audience could fully catch its breath. According to Variety, the event posed a recurring production question—how to fit Madonna, BTS, Justin Bieber, Shakira, Burna Boy, Gustavo Dudamel, Chris Martin and the Muppets into a single segment—without letting any one act fully settle into the spotlight for long. The result, observers said, was an elaborate “blink and you missed it” showcase where the marquee names appeared, performed, and quickly rotated out as the program moved on.
Shakira emerged as the de facto headliner within that compressed framework. Variety reports that she performed alongside Burna Boy, delivering “Dai Dai,” the tournament’s FIFA anthem, which carries a message of belonging encapsulated in lyrics that evoke brotherhood through shared movement. The song’s central “Here in this place you belong” sentiment became a kind of thematic thread—less a plot than a feeling—intended to tie the crowd together even as the lineup shifted around it.
For viewers waiting on the next surge of pop recognition, the show’s pace appeared to pivot back to familiar entertainment anchors. With roughly a minute and a half remaining, Variety describes a return to the Muppets, now joined by the Webby Award-winning PS22 Chorus and a notably tall additional presence in the chorus line: Chris Martin, who curated the halftime. Together, they delivered “We believe in love,” a message that landed as the second-biggest emotional signpost of the evening, coming after the earlier “Dai Dai” performance framed as a call to unity.
The halftime also leaned heavily on formal ceremony and live vocal authority. Variety notes that Jennifer Hudson sang the U.S. national anthem, and that her performance stood out as “genuine” and un-lip-synched—an emphasis that suggests organizers wanted at least one segment to feel grounded in raw, real-time delivery rather than a purely staged product. That contrast, between high-production pop spectacle and a straightforward, full-voice anthem, sharpened the sense that the show was simultaneously celebrating sport and performing mainstream entertainment’s most recognizable rituals.
Beyond Shakira’s moment, the event’s musical ecosystem extended into official FIFA branding. Variety reports that Robbie Williams, Nicole Scherzinger and Laura Pausini teamed up for an official FIFA theme song titled “Desire.” In that collaboration, Williams sang the line “Love is the law,” a lyric presented as both romantic directive and, in Variety’s framing, a statement that would only remain “true” so long as no political authority intervened—an aside underscoring how deeply the show’s messages were meant to read as universal.
What happened next was not limited to the stadium. Multiple charts pointed to “Dai Dai” becoming a global earworm well beyond the halftime moment itself. Billboard reported that Shakira and Burna Boy’s “Dai Dai (FIFA World Cup Official Song 2026)” remained the biggest song in the world, topping the Billboard Global 200 for a fourth consecutive week and the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart for a sixth week. Billboard also contextualized the anthem’s chart surge as following the final halftime show’s star-studded premiere, which featured Shakira, Justin Bieber, BTS and Madonna heading into the tournament’s first-ever final halftime showcase—an additional indicator of how quickly the halftime performances translated into mainstream music momentum. Billboard
Even with the last World Cup goal scored on July 19, the halftime spotlight continued to ripple outward through streaming, radio, and international playlists. Billboard’s reporting tied the anthem’s staying power to its immediate visibility at the culmination match—Spain vs. Argentina at New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.—and it positioned the song as a dominant cultural artifact of the final itself. Billboard
The show’s emotional aftertaste also extended to Shakira’s off-stage interactions, highlighting how the halftime theme of belonging could turn personal. Another Billboard report described Shakira’s gratitude after spending time with children known as the “Ghetto Kids” in connection with the halftime performance. Shakira shared that experience in a social post, expressing that those days were filled with “inexplicable love.” In the same coverage, Billboard reiterated that the dancers appeared alongside her and Burna Boy for “Dai Dai” during the World Cup Final halftime event. Billboard
Together, the Variety and Billboard accounts sketch a halftime show that wasn’t simply a lineup recital; it was a carefully managed collision of music, ceremony, and mass audience participation. Variety’s narrative emphasizes how the roster—pop icons, K-pop chart power, stadium orchestration and the Muppets—was forced to fit into a tightly rationed runtime. Yet Billboard’s chart outcomes suggest the compressed format may have amplified the impact: the anthem stayed at the top, performances traveled quickly, and the messages of love and belonging carried into global listening patterns.
In the end, FIFA’s final halftime functioned like a curated playlist performed live at stadium scale—moments of star power and instant cultural recognition, layered over formal anthem delivery and a recurring insistence on togetherness. Shakira’s “Dai Dai” became the anchor that lasted beyond the lights, while the rest of the cast—Madonna, BTS, Justin Bieber, Burna Boy, Chris Martin, the PS22 Chorus and the Muppets—defined the show as a rapid parade. The lasting story, at least in the early weeks after the match, is that even a fleeting 11-minute segment can still launch a global anthem into sustained chart leadership. Variety
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