World Cup half-time show review round-up: ‘Lots of stars and little purpose’

By Sean O'Grady, Press Assocation Deputy Entertainment Editor

The World Cup half-time show had “lots of stars and little purpose” according to critics, who gave the spectacle mediocre reviews.

The likes of Madonna, BTS, Justin Bieber, Shakira and The Muppets performed at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 19th in an 11-minute performance curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin.

Awarding the show two out of five stars, The Times compared Fifa’s event to the Super Bowl half-time show and wrote: “The Americanisation of the World Cup is now complete.”

“The traditional 15-minute half-time break was extended to 25 minutes to mirror the Super Bowl’s status as the ultimate entertainment megashow,” they added.

“It also served to show football fans the world over an important fact: pop music is capable of being truly awful.”

The New York Times praised the show for being “impeccably choreographed”, while noting that it was a half-time show few World Cup fans appeared to want.

“The performances were all quite episodic, to the extent that they seemed to be taking place on different planes of existence”, and it had “lots of stars and little purpose”, the paper wrote.

In a more positive review, The Telegraph awarded the half-time show three out of five stars and said it was “charming, friendly and intimate” in comparison with the more extravagant Super Bowl half-time show.

They called Madonna’s pre-filmed intro, in which she sang her 2000 hit Music “underwhelming”, but praised the inclusion of the P2SS Chorus of Staten Island, a children’s choir who performed at the end of the show.

In another lukewarm review, The Guardian said the half-time show “zipped along, cramming a lot into its 11 minutes by the simple expedient of paring songs down to their bare essentials and swiftly cutting between artists”.

However, they criticised Justin Bieber’s performance of his song, Everything Hallelujah, saying the “downcast” rendition was not right for the otherwise upbeat show.

In another negative review, Time magazine wrote “the show as a whole was so blandly, sappily crowd-pleasing that few individual moments stood out as highlights”.

They also felt the show had an impossible task of trying to represent the world’s music in an 11-minute performance, saying it “did so much that it ended up saying nothing”.

The World Cup half-time show was produced by Fifa and Global Citizen, with the aim of raising 100 million dollars (£74 million) for the Fifa Global Citizen Education Fund, which helps end extreme poverty and increase sports access for children.

Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 in the final, their first World Cup win since 2010.

It made them the first country to simultaneously hold the men’s and women’s World Cup titles, having won the latter in 2023.