Wayne Rooney on FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show: 'I Thought It Was Crap'
The 11-minute show drew advance backlash and left viewers saying the star-packed lineup felt crowded and hard to follow, critics said.
- On Sunday, FIFA debuted its first-ever World Cup final halftime show at New York New Jersey Stadium during the match between Argentina and Spain, assembling an international roster of performers for a global audience.
- FIFA faced significant advance backlash attempting to fit a massive production into soccer's customary 15-minute halftime break while aiming to replicate NFL-style entertainment for nearly 2 billion expected viewers.
- Curator Chris Martin of Coldplay assembled Madonna, Justin Bieber, Shakira, and Burna Boy for the 11-minute show. Shakira and Burna Boy highlighted the Ugandan youth dance crew Ghetto Kids as "the show's finest moment."
- Critics described the performance as "overstuffed" and "blandly crowd-pleasing," struggling to unify disparate acts. The Cure frontman Robert Smith captured fan sentiment on Instagram, writing: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH&."
- Comparisons to Super Bowl halftime shows revealed the challenge of programming for global audiences. While recent Super Bowl headliners like Bad Bunny offered culturally specific performances, the World Cup show prioritized broad, safe appeal.
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51 Articles
Soccer fans divided over World Cup's first-ever halftime show
The halftime show at the 2026 World Cup Final opened with Madonna singing, "Music makes the people come together." But online reaction to the 11-minute-43-second blur of superstar performances proved to be divided.
Soccer star trashes World Cup Halftime show during live interview
Wayne Rooney was not impressed by the World Cup’s first halftime show, delivering his verdict during a live TV interview. The former England captain, acting as an analyst during the BBC’s coverage of Sunday’s men’s final, was asked what he made of the 11-minute performance at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. “What did you think...
The grand halftime show in the World Cup final sounded like AI. And was allowed to steal the picture from the real actors in a mix of Disney Fun, fascism and violence, writes Erik Jensen in this column.
Liam Gallagher of the Oasis, former footballer Wayne Rooney and many football fans did not measure the words about the show that combined Madonna, Shakira, BTS, Justin Bieber or the Marretas in the interval of the end of the World Cup
The first halftime show at a World Cup final was an unprecedented first. The artists bravely tried to prove the show's right to exist....
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