The 2026 World Cup is becoming one of the most highly anticipated sporting events in the world as, for the first time in the tournament’s history, it will be hosted simultaneously across three countries: the United States, ¢αиα∂α, and мєχι¢σ. The tournament will take place in the summer of 2026, beginning on June 11, with the largest expansion in World Cup history, featuring 48 national teams and millions of fans from around the globe.
Last week, FIFA excited music fans by announcing that Katy Perry, Future, Tyla, LISA, and Anitta would perform at the opening ceremony of the 2026 World Cup. Perry will headline the opening ceremony in Los Angeles ahead of the United States men’s national team’s first match against Paraguay on June 12. Future is also set to perform at SoFi Stadium alongside DJ Sanjoy.
Meanwhile, BTS made an impressive musical comeback earlier this year with the release of their sixth studio album ARIRANG on March 20. The album topped the Billboard 200 chart and remained at No. 1 for three consecutive weeks — marking the first time the group achieved a multi-week No. 1 album on the chart. Last month, the group officially launched their ARIRANG WORLD TOUR in Goyang, South кσяєα, and they are currently on a global journey to meet fans through March next year, spanning 34 countries with 85 performances.
With such an intense schedule, no one expected BTS to still have another “mega project” waiting for them this coming July — a collaboration with the mαѕѕive global sporting event that is the 2026 World Cup. Yet that surprise has truly become reality, leaving fans stunned.
Specifically, according to an announcement from Global Citizen early on May 14, BTS will officially perform during the halftime show of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final, which will take place on July 19 at MetLife Stadium. In addition to the group’s performance, the show will also feature performances by two global music icons: Madonna and Shakira.
This will mark the first time in history that a FIFA World Cup Final will include a halftime show similar to the Super Bowl. According to Billboard, the performance segment will last approximately 11 minutes, but it is already expected to become one of the most iconic moments in World Cup history.
The news was announced through a very special social media video featuring Coldplay member Chris Martin alongside famous characters such as Elmo and Cookie Monster from Sesame Street, as well as Kermit and Miss Piggy from The Muppets. Even more notably, BTS appeared through a surprise FaceTime call in the video, where Chris personally called each member’s name and invited them to participate in the show before RM confidently confirmed: "We'll be there Chris for sure".
It has been revealed that this halftime show is being organized by Global Citizen in collaboration with Chris Martin to raise funds for the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund — a project aiming to raise $100 million USD to expand access to education and football opportunities for children around the world. So far, the fund has already raised over $30 million, with $1 from every World Cup ticket sold being directly donated to the initiative.
Although this is the first-ever halftime show at a World Cup Final, both Madonna and Shakira previously headlined Super Bowl halftime shows. Meanwhile, BTS will become the first K-pop act to take on this role and also the first K-pop group to perform on a World Cup final stage. This marks yet another historic milestone in the group’s global career.
Among the members, Jungkook is the one with previous experience performing at this mαѕѕive global sporting event. In 2022, Jungkook made history at the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony in Qatar, becoming the first кσяєαn artist to perform solo at the event. The official World Cup song performed by Jungkook that year also achieved high rankings on numerous international charts.
Four years later, Jungkook is now returning to the World Cup alongside BTS for the final match, further fueling excitement within the global K-pop fandom. Fans are already curious about what kind of spectacular performance the K-pop superstars will bring to the stage. Social media has been flooded with excited reactions and comments: "These are genuinely my legends for life", "the energy from this announcement alone is unmatched", "the way we wanted superbowl halftime show and we got the world cup instead which is way bigger...", "oh my goshh im so proud of them", "This is so cool we thought NFL whole time they planned fifa so αωєsome", "This time all the cookies together", "That is going to be AMAZING!!! The World Cup is literally the biggest event on the entire planet. Holy crap!!! I'm so excited!!!",...
