FIFA during Sunday’s Spain-Argentina match “managed to pull off” the first World Cup final halftime show, which featured a “parade of many of the biggest names in music,” according to Anastasia Tsioulcas of NPR. The 11-minute spectacle included Madonna, Shakira, BTS, Justin Bieber and Coldplay, among others. Organizers promised a “feel-good, family-friendly procession of fan favorites, and that’s exactly what the performers delivered.” The show was a “vehicle for FIFA’s charity arm, the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, whose goal is to raise $100 million to expand education and soccer access for children worldwide” (NPR.org, 7/19).
TURNING IN A GOOD SHOW: In San Jose, Jim Harrington wrote the show “turned out to be an absolute hit, easily clearing whatever reasonable bars one might have set for its success.” The performances “moved smoothly along at a breakneck pace, evenly showcasing each of the big stars, while still managing to feel like a cohesive performance as opposed to just a series of snippets sewn together” (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 7/19). In London, Neil McCormick wrote rather than “going for the kind of spectacular blockbuster staging often seen at sporting events” such as the Super Bowl, FIFA “surprisingly opted to keep things charming, friendly and intimate.” The emphasis was on “a spirit of community, rather than overblown ego.” McCormick added he was “genuinely surprised by the warmth and charm of this short show” (London TELEGRAPH, 7/19).
WHAT DID WE JUST SEE? BILLBOARD’s Isabela Raygoza wrote the show “turned the most sacred match in the sport into an 11-and-a-half-minute pop fever dream.” It moved with the “logic of a playlist on shuffle and the pace of a caffeine rush,” squeezing world-renowned musicians, a children’s chorus, the Muppets and a “sky full of colorful fireworks into a blink-and-you-missed-it production that still somehow felt gigantic.” If the challenge was “making every second count, the show’s greatest success was understanding that subtlety had no place here” (BILLBOARD, 7/19). FINANCIAL TIMES’ Ludovic Hunter-Tilney writes it was a “surreal but immaculately mounted display of big-budget pop stagecraft, well choreographed and smoothly filmed” (FINANCIAL TIMES, 7/20).
NO REASON FOR IT: In London, Will Hodgkinson wrote the halftime show “was mawkish, glib and unsubtle, with no real emotion behind it.” It was simply an “empty spectacle with a load of kids thrown in for good measure” (London TIMES, 7/19). In N.Y., Antoinette Bueno wrote the star power “was considerable, but the overall combination proved to be a bad mix of energy, odd transitions, and an overall feeling of discord” (N.Y. POST, 7/19). TIME’s Judy Berman wrote there was so much happening that it was “impossible to follow it all without giving yourself whiplash.” The show as a whole was “so blandly, sappily crowd-pleasing that few individual moments stood out as highlights” (TIME, 7/19).
CAN’T MAKE UP MY MIND: THE ATHLETIC’s Tim Spiers wrote while everything “was very well choreographed, fun, big and colourful, it was all pretty random and felt very contrived.” The show itself was “passable enough, especially the football-related stuff.” The Norwegian row bit “was good, the Ted Lasso skit was fine” and the performance of “Seven Nation Army” from Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel and an orchestra and the Muppets “was great.” Spiers: “But the rest? BTS doing a pop number, Bieber bringing the mood to a halt and then Coldplay, with the help of a load of kids from the PS22 Chorus, ramping up the schmaltz singing about love … you just kept asking yourself why?” (THE ATHLETIC, 7/19). SI’s Brigid Kennedy wrote it was a “confusing, if nonetheless entertaining, interlude.” Kennedy: “I can’t say I didn’t like the show. ... But overall, the whole thing was just a bit too much to be profound." Each performer had what “felt like seconds to do their bit” and the “nonstop stimulation cluttered what could have been a stronger (or at least more effective) message” (SI, 7/19).
MADE FOR TV EVENT: In Dublin, Ken Early, wrote the show was “designed for TV and alienating to watch from the stands, where you had very little idea of what was going on” (IRISH TIMES, 7/19). VANITY FAIR’s Dan Adler wrote the individual performances in the stadium “felt underwhelming, and the mood in the crowd was relatively staid.” Performers for the most part “played straight to the cameras trailing them around the field, making for a visual presentation that filled TV monitors but only occupied a small portion of the stadium’s space and attention” (VANITY FAIR, 7/19).
PREGAME CEREMONY: ROLLING STONE’s Legaspi & Crosbie wrote prior to the start of the World Cup final, a pregame ceremony was held featuring singers Post Malone, Robbie Williams, Laura Pausini and Nicole Scherzinger, influencer IShowSpeed and actor Tom Cruise (ROLLING STONE, 7/19).
