From Madonna’s wild Ronaldo entrance to Shakira and the Ghetto Kids: 10 entertainment moments that defined World Cup 2026

Football may have supplied the goals, tears and sporting drama, but the 2026 FIFA World Cup also behaved like an entertainment festival with a tournament attached.

The first World Cup final halftime show attempted to squeeze Madonna, Shakira, BTS, Justin Bieber, Burna Boy, Coldplay, the Muppets and two Brazilian football legends into 11 frantic minutes. Add Tom Cruise, Post Malone, IShowSpeed and several viral musical moments, and this was a World Cup that regularly wandered into “not on my 2026 bingo card” territory.

Here are 10 entertainment moments that almost upstaged the football.

Nobody does an entrance quite like Madonna, but even by her standards, this was gloriously excessive.

The Queen of Pop emerged through the stadium tunnels in a dune buggy driven by Brazilian football greats Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. She then launched into a reworked version of her 2000 hit “Music”, incorporating elements of “Disco Inferno” and “Danceteria”.

Watching two World Cup winners chauffeur Madonna onto the pitch was the kind of celebrity-football collision that nobody could reasonably have placed on their 2026 bingo card.

After Madonna’s flamboyant entrance and an orchestral rendition of “Seven Nation Army”, Justin Bieber appeared with an acoustic guitar to perform a reworked version of “Everything Hallelujah”.

Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt introduced him in character as Ted Lasso and Coach Beard, but even that playful set-up could not disguise the abrupt change in mood. In a show designed to feel like football’s answer to the Super Bowl, Bieber’s subdued acoustic number felt like someone had accidentally switched to an intimate coffeehouse playlist.

It was certainly a choice and one of the show’s most debated moments. And the internet hasn't been kind so far.

At this point, Shakira and the World Cup are practically in a long-term relationship.

The Colombian superstar returned to perform “Dai Dai”, the official song heard before matches throughout the tournament, alongside Nigerian musician Burna Boy. Barefoot and dressed in vivid yellow-and-pink feathers, Shakira supplied the movement, colour and unmistakable World Cup energy that the halftime show needed.

Sixteen years after “Waka Waka”, she still understood the assignment better than almost anyone else.

The appearance of Uganda’s Ghetto Kids alongside Shakira and Burna Boy was more than a blink-and-miss-it cameo.

The young dancers brought their trademark exuberance to “Dai Dai”, performing during the first halftime show staged at a FIFA World Cup final. In a production stuffed with global celebrities, their joyful, high-energy presence became one of its most heartwarming elements.

From viral dance videos to the world’s biggest football stage: that is a World Cup journey worth celebrating.

BTS brought the tempo back up with a football-themed performance of their global hit “Dynamite”.

Dressed in variations of red and black, the group delivered one of the show’s most instantly recognisable numbers. Their appearance also produced its own viral sideshow when streamer IShowSpeed was filmed reacting enthusiastically from the crowd.

In a halftime show that sometimes felt too crowded for its own good, BTS knew how to make their brief minutes count.

Gustavo Dudamel conducting musicians from the New York Philharmonic and Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra would already have been an impressive sight.

Adding the Muppets’ Electric Mayhem — complete with Animal on drums — transformed it into something far stranger and more memorable. Their rendition of stadium anthem “Seven Nation Army” was precisely the kind of surreal crossover this World Cup seemed determined to produce.

Classical musicians, rock riffs and furry puppets at a World Cup final: no notes.

Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt unexpectedly returned as Ted Lasso and Coach Beard to introduce Justin Bieber.

The pair gave Bieber a comic pre-performance pep talk, with Ted assuring him that nobody was watching — a decent joke considering the enormous global audience.

It was shameless television promotion, certainly, but also one of the halftime show’s cleanest pop-culture jokes.

Internet celebrity fully entered traditional sporting spectacle when IShowSpeed opened the pre-match festivities with his World Cup-themed song “Champions”.

He had streamed from several matches during the tournament before graduating to an official performance on the pitch. Whether that represents the thrilling democratisation of entertainment or the final victory of influencer culture depends entirely on your tolerance for livestream chaos.

Either way, his journey from the stands to the ceremony captured the culture of this World Cup.

Tom Cruise did not leap from an aircraft or rappel from the stadium roof, but his appearance still carried the earnest intensity of a “Mission: Impossible” briefing.

Dressed simply in a black polo shirt and jeans, Cruise addressed the crowd before the final and enthusiastically introduced the two remaining nations, Spain and Argentina.

It was dramatic, slightly surreal and entirely on brand.

Post Malone arrived with both something old and something new.

He debuted “Chrome Heartbreaker” before being joined by Swae Lee for their 2018 hit “Sunflower”. The performance unfolded on a central stage surrounded by imagery inspired by the New York skyline.

Alongside appearances from Jennifer Hudson, Robbie Williams, Nicole Scherzinger, Laura Pausini and María Becerra, it reinforced the feeling that the World Cup final had become an awards ceremony, music festival and football match rolled into one.