was everything Chris Martin’s idea.

During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Coldplay frontman called Hugh Evans, CEO of Global Citizen, for whom he curates the Global Citizen Festival, to propose something new. “Wouldn’t it be amazing,” Evans remembers Martin saying, “if we could do the first World Cup halftime show?” Evans agreed and contacted FIFA president Gianni Infantino at the organization’s headquarters in Switzerland to sell him on Martin’s plan. It wasn’t necessary.

Infantino had already had a similar idea and was a fan of Coldplay. “So I had already decided independently that I wanted to work with Coldplay and that I wanted to achieve this dream,” says Evans.

The result of those conversations, which will be released during Sunday’s World Cup final between Spain and Argentina at New York New Jersey Stadium, is a massive but only 11-minute-long spectacle featuring Justin Bieber, Madonna, BTS and Shakira. They will be joined by Coldplay and a choir from Staten Island’s PS22 school, and will be seen by millions of people in homes, bars and corners around the world.

The show is also part of an effort to raise $100 million for Global Citizen’s youth education efforts around the world. FIFA will donate $1 from every ticket sold during the tournament to the fund, and Shakira will also donate royalties from her World Cup anthem with Burna Boy (“Dai Dai”).

Not that all World Cup fans are necessarily excited to see the spectacle. Football fans have been skeptical for months about the possibility of the final having a half-time show. The World Cup has never done anything like it, the argument goes, and it doesn’t need it now. Since halftime shows are practically synonymous with the Super Bowl, some fans think that having a halftime show is part of an effort to “Americanize” the World Cup, or make it more attractive to viewers in countries where soccer is less popular. Others, for example, are irritated by things like “hydration breaks,” which are seen as just another way to draw attention to ads.

“The World Cup has traditionally centered its musical identity on a single iconic anthem and an opening ceremony rooted in the host nation,” says Tiffany Naiman, director of the Berry Gordy Music Industry Center at UCLA. “So when FIFA presents an 11-minute halftime show, with Madonna and Justin Bieber, and Tom Cruise as the closing ceremony chaperone, some interpret it as an import of a made-for-TV American sensibility.”

Oh yeah, Tom Cruise. Just as he did at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Cruise is scheduled to appear during the World Cup closing ceremony before the final match.

Naiman emphasizes that while some may fear that the inclusion of a halftime ceremony will Americanize the event, it is taking on a global roster of performers. After all, Bieber is Canadian and his home country is hosting the Cup. Most of the acts are not from the United States. “Ultimately, what is being globalized is not so much American culture but the production model,” he says. “FIFA is borrowing the language of the Super Bowl while filling it with artists that reflect the geography of its audience.”

This focus on global appeal was important to Evans and has already attracted at least one hugely influential international fanbase: the BTS Army. Members of the military have appeared in your mentions in recent weeks, dropping their signature purple hearts. They’ve also helped Global Citizen get closer to their fundraising goal: They raised about $40,000 for the Global Citizen fund in the first week “without even being asked,” Evans says.

Interest in the halftime show is also showing up at Kalshi and Polymarket, which have seen tens of billions of dollars in World Cup prediction market operations, according to a CNBC report. At a market in Kalshi, Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” was marked as a possible highlight of the show. A Polymarket market opted for “Dai Dai”. The latter seems more likely as it is the official song of the World Cup and features Burna Boy, who will also perform.