The World Cup’s Celebrity-Packed Halftime Show Was Built for Clips, Not Complete Performances

The first World Cup final halftime show attempted to fit the scale of a global music festival into approximately 11 minutes.

Madonna opened with “Music.” BTS performed “Dynamite.” Justin Bieber delivered an acoustic segment. Shakira and Burna Boy followed with the official tournament song, “Dai Dai.” Gustavo Dudamel led an orchestra, while Coldplay’s Chris Martin, a children’s chorus and familiar television characters joined the finale.

The celebrity lineup was enormous.

The time available to each performer was not.

The Associated Press reported that the four primary headliners received approximately two minutes apiece. That structure produced immediate recognition and a rapid sequence of shareable moments, but it left little space for any artist to establish the dramatic arc expected from a traditional concert performance.

This was less a collection of miniature concerts than a live entertainment feed.

Every segment needed to communicate immediately. Madonna arrived with a career-defining song. BTS selected one of its most widely recognized international hits. Bieber created contrast by reducing the production around him. Shakira and Burna Boy connected the halftime program directly to the tournament through a song that had been heard before all 104 matches.

The approach reflects the economics of global event programming.

FIFA needed artists recognizable in several markets, across multiple generations and through different musical traditions. One performer carrying the entire production might have created a more coherent show, but a larger roster gave the organization more fan communities, more headlines and more opportunities for individual clips to circulate after the match.

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The pre-match closing ceremony used the same strategy.

Jennifer Hudson performed the United States national anthem, Post Malone introduced a new song and reunited with Swae Lee for “Sunflower,” while Tom Cruise delivered a speech designed to increase the sense of spectacle surrounding the final.

For musicians, the exposure is extraordinary.

The World Cup reaches audiences that may never watch an awards show, attend a music festival or follow a particular artist’s release campaign. One familiar chorus can reactivate catalog listening across several countries simultaneously.

The tradeoff is artistic compression.

When every star receives only enough time for recognition, the artist’s role becomes closer to a symbol than a storyteller. The performance communicates presence—Madonna is here, BTS is here, Shakira is here—without allowing much room for development or surprise.

That may be exactly what the event required.

The halftime show was not designed primarily for the people inside the stadium. It was built for an international broadcast and the millions of short videos, reaction posts and replays that followed.

The World Cup has now established that its final can support a Super Bowl-style entertainment property.

The next challenge is deciding whether future editions should collect as many celebrities as possible—or trust one artist with enough time to create a performance people remember as a complete work.