How Similar Was the World Cup Halftime Show to the Super Bowl?
Categoria: Musica
Did FIFA offer reheated nachos or create a fresh flavor?
Por Billboard | 19/07/2026
FIFA and football; the NFL and football. The two different sports that share a name now share another thing – a star-studded, hyped-up halftime show. Halftime shows have been part of the Super Bowl since 1967, its inaugural year, but 2026 marks the first major halftime show at the World Cup, which has been going on since 1930. The change certainly has a little something to do with the fact that the final FIFA World Cup showdown takes place in the United States this year (New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, to be exact). And Lord knows that Americans love a halftime show. Each year, the Super Bowl Halftime Show is reliably the most-watched single broadcast in the U.S., outpacing the second-most-watched broadcast by millions. So: was the FIFA World Cup Halftime Show on Sunday (July 19) basically the Super Bowl Halftime Show during a soccer game, or did it feel like a fresh, distinct event? Things certainly felt different from the start. Not to state the obvious, but the Super Bowl opens with three slow-building ballads: “The Star-Spangled Banner,” part of the Super Bowl from the start; “America the Beautiful,” sung annually since 2009 (though it was also performed in 1977, the sole year the National Anthem wasn’t performed at a Super Bowl); and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the Black National Anthem, sung at Super Bowls since 2021. These are emotionally impactful, vocally demanding songs that bring out ace singers, but not spectacle: people have their hands over their hearts during the National Anthem, they’re not doing choreo. The FIFA World Cup, however, opened with pure spectacle: A Busby Berkeley-esque musical number called “Champions” by streamer IShowSpeed that involved dancers and musicians traipsing around an on-field image of the Empire State Building, augmented by bird’s-eye shots of a soccer ball stage. (Helpfully, the song made a point to let people know that “this is the World Cup” no fewer than 27 times – just in case anyone was confused.) After that, Post Malone – decked out in his country duds but back to rapping – debuted a new song, “Chrome Heartbreaker,” and brought out Swae Lee for their Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Sunflower.” This “closing ceremony” performance was less spectacle than you’d get from a Super Bowl Halftime Show, yet more than you’d see in a pregame Super Bowl performance. For any Americans tuning into a World Cup for the first time, it let them know the vibes would be different. More than an hour later, Robbie Williams, Nicole Scherzinger and Laura Pausini teamed up to blend voices on “Desire (Official FIFA Anthem)” while flags from dozens of countries waved around them. It was an emotionally charged performance, akin to what you’d get before an NFL kickoff, but it honestly felt more like something you’d see during the Olympics — it felt international, not national. (Which makes sense given that it was, as IShowSpeed repeatedly reminded us, the World Cup.) Jennifer Hudson’s knockout rendition of “The Star