Shakira Steals the Show at the FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show in 200,000 Crystals and the Internet Cannot Stop Talking About It

Jul 22, 2026 by apost team

On Sunday, July 19, 2026, the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final between Spain and Argentina was held at New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It was the first World Cup Final ever held on US soil. It was also the first World Cup Final ever to feature a halftime show. And the performer who anchored it — who brought a crystal-covered bodysuit, a pink microphone, 200,000 Swarovski crystals, and 25 years of stage experience to the biggest football pitch in the world — was Shakira.

The 11-minute Topps Final Halftime Show was curated by Chris Martin of Coldplay in support of the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund. It featured Madonna, who opened the show from a dune buggy driven by football legends Ronaldo and Ronaldinho before performing a new version of "Music"; BTS, who performed as a full seven-member group for the first time in years; Justin Bieber, who played acoustic guitar in custom Skylrk; and Shakira, who took the field for her segment in a vibrant pink and orange custom Roberto Cavalli look by designer Fausto Puglisi.

The bodysuit was hand-embroidered with more than 200,000 Swarovski crystals in hot pink, orange, and citrine — a process that took 120 hours to complete. It featured a daring asymmetric cut-out across the waist and hip, a high-cut silhouette, and glittering fringe. Shakira performed barefoot, as she often does. She held a bright pink microphone. Her signature honey-blonde waves fell loose around her shoulders. Surrounding her were dancers in coordinated sunshine-yellow and orange costumes — and members of Uganda's Ghetto Kids dance troupe, who joined her alongside Burna Boy.

This was Shakira's moment. And nobody in that stadium was looking anywhere else.

Shakira and Burna Boy performed "Dai Dai" — the official anthem of the 2026 FIFA World Cup — to a crowd that had been watching football for 45 minutes and erupted the moment she stepped onto the field. The pair had first performed the song together at the World Cup opening ceremony in Mexico City in June, at Estadio Azteca. On Sunday, they brought it to the final — the same song, a different stage, and an audience watching in more than 200 countries.

"I played at the inauguration, and now I'm playing at the final," Shakira said in an interview ahead of the performance. She described the challenge of making the final show feel distinct from the first. She did not explain the bodysuit. It explained itself.

The halftime show had been announced in May 2026, when Shakira appeared in New York City to confirm she would headline. Since then, the anticipation had been building alongside her "Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour" — her first major arena tour, which began in the United States in June 2026 and will continue with a residency at Shakira Stadium in Madrid in September. The tour came in the immediate wake of her historic legal victory in Spain, where a court acquitted her of tax fraud in May 2026 and ordered the government to return approximately $70 million.

At 49, Shakira walked onto the field at one of the largest sporting events in the world, barefoot, in 200,000 crystals, performing the official anthem of the tournament she had been asked to open and close. The crowd did not need any time to warm up. It was already there.

apost.com

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