Tom Cruise and Robbie Williams Close Out the World Cup
FIFA has revealed the full performer list for the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium. Tom Cruise arrives as a special guest, while Bieber, Madonna, Shakira and BTS co-headline the halftime show.
- FIFA has published the full performer list for the World Cup final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.
- Tom Cruise is announced as a special guest, but FIFA has not specified his role.
- The first World Cup final with a halftime show, modelled on the Super Bowl, is co-headlined by Justin Bieber, Madonna, Shakira and BTS.
- The show is backed by the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, aiming to raise 100 million dollars.
Days out from the World Cup final, FIFA has released its full roster of stars for the closing ceremony, and the biggest name on the list is not a singer but an actor: Tom Cruise. The final is played on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Cruise is billed as a special guest, though FIFA has not said what he will actually be doing that evening.
That is the one detail missing, and naturally the only one anyone is talking about. The last time Cruise took a stage like this, he dropped off the stadium roof at the Paris Olympics closing ceremony. Now he arrives at a venue that holds more than 80,000 people, with a World Cup final as the backdrop. FIFA is staying quiet, and the silence is doing its job.
Who performs on July 19
The closing ceremony is a separate pre-match programme, scheduled for 1.30pm Eastern time. It features Robbie Williams, Nicole Scherzinger, Laura Pausini and YouTuber IShowSpeed. That last name is FIFA’s most telling move: an influencer with tens of millions of followers slotted between Williams and Pausini, because the audience watching a final is no longer just the one buying tickets.
Jennifer Hudson performs the American national anthem before kick-off. Conductor Gustavo Dudamel also appears, as does the PS22 chorus from Staten Island. Coldplay arrive alongside the Muppets from Sesame Street, a combination nobody asked for and everybody will watch.
The halftime show is its own story. It is co-headlined by Justin Bieber, Madonna, Shakira and BTS, with Burna Boy and Coldplay. Chris Martin of Coldplay is curating the whole programme. This is the first World Cup final to include a halftime performance, modelled on the Super Bowl. FIFA has not yet announced how long it runs.
The show is backed by the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, aiming to raise 100 million dollars. That is the part that explains why the list runs this long. When you put Madonna, BTS and Shakira in a single block, you are not just selling a football match.
Does football need a halftime show?
This question has split supporters since the first rumours leaked. The Super Bowl has a halftime break of around twenty minutes and the entire format is built around advertising. A football half-time lasts fifteen minutes and has traditionally been sacred: players in the dressing room, fans queuing for a drink, pundits picking apart the opening 45.
Now Madonna and BTS are going into those fifteen minutes. The logistics are serious, assembling a stage on the pitch of a World Cup final is not something you improvise, and FIFA is already signalling that fans in the stadium will have an active role in the show. Translation: arrive early, there will be choreography.
From a Serbian vantage point, this is the first World Cup openly competing with the Super Bowl as a television product. The final on July 19 will not just be a match, it will be a broadcast with a match in the middle. Whether that counts as progress or as missing the point depends on why you switch the television on.
FIFA released the list four days before kick-off, just enough time to warm up the conversation without spoiling anything. One question stays unanswered: what exactly is Tom Cruise doing?
Will you tune in on July 19 for the football or for the show?
