Halftime Show at FIFA World Cup Final Joins a Litany of Firsts for the Quadrennial Event

Justin Bieber, Madonna, Shakira, BTS make for a diverse lineup, and the venue adds a sound system that can handle it

There have been a lot of firsts at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. For instance, it's the first time the competition featured 48 teams and was jointly hosted by three nations: the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Fittingly for an event taking place at an NFL stadium, it will also be the first World Cup ever to host a halftime show.

The inaugural World Cup Final Halftime Show will take place during the July 19 Final at the New York New Jersey Stadium (aka MetLife Stadium), headlined by Justin Bieber, Madonna, Shakira, and BTS and curated by Coldplay's Chris Martin. Also on the program will be Burna Boy and, led by conductor Gustavo Dudamel, members of the New York Philharmonic and Venezuela's Sim n Bol var Symphony Orchestra. And cameos by characters from Sesame Street and The Muppets are expected.

There may be lots of firsts, but the sound for this eclectic musical m lange will be produced by people who have done it many times. Clair Global, through its brands ATK Audiotek (acquired by Clair Global in 2021, it has more than 20 Super Bowl Halftime Shows under its belt) and Clair Global Integration, is providing the audio reinforcement and stadium-wide communications network for the World Cup music event.

Clair Global's Nathaniel Hare: We were able to marshal many different parts of the company's locations, equipment, and personnel to match the needs of the largest global sporting event of the year. In the 60-year history of Clair Global as a company, says Clair Global Account Executive Nathaniel Hare, whose remit covers broadcast, special events, and sports, the FIFA World Cup 2026 is the single largest event we have ever worked on, by nearly every measure.

The show's logistics will also mimic those of the Super Bowl's iconic extravaganzas, in which an entire production set is brought to the field and assembled in minutes. For this show, the 11-minute performance will take place during a 20- to 30-minute break that accommodates stage setup and the performances. That's twice as long as a typical World Cup halftime.

The sound system to be deployed for the halftime show is substantial. The main PA components are a Cohesion CO12 system, hung from a custom catenary system rigged by engineering, design, and production company TAIT. Catenary cables are made of Dyneema, an ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene that has a very high tensile-strength-to-weight ratio and is, its manufacturer asserts, pound for pound up to 15 times stronger than steel. The sound-system design is a distributed-mono type, with audio transport to the amplifiers via Dante over redundant fiber-optic connections with an analog backup.

Comms are integrated with the broadcaster's production partners. The Halftime Show will have its own independent comms system using Riedel gear, provided by ATK Versacom, with a redundant backup system of Clear-Com cellular equipment. The pre-match and Closing Ceremonies and game comms will be handled by Riedel directly.

A Separate System

As is often the case with these types of deployments, the event PA is separate from the venue's installed-sound system.

The house system is largely not in usage for the [music] event, outside of ancillary areas, such as stadium concourses, Hare says. The house PA is active only in case of an emergency, when it could be used for [life-safety] messaging. Otherwise, the house sound system in the NY/NJ Stadium is not in use for entertainment or sporting purposes.

There have been a few challenges that would be familiar to anyone setting up an entertainment production on a playing field: for example, the need to make sure the field itself isn't damaged or otherwise affected for game play. In the case of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, turf became a sensitive issue even before the games began. As a result, the temporary Cohesion PA was installed many weeks ahead of the first match to allow time for the pitch to be installed and the grass to grow undisturbed.

FIFA is very much concerned about protecting the integrity of the grass and the pitch, says Hare. We installed the equipment months ahead of the first match to be out of the way of any potential damage to the field.

The matter also may have had some implications for live sound. FIFA replaced the artificial turf at 11 North American NFL stadiums with premium natural grass; at NY/NJ Stadium, it's Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass, but any possible reflective or absorptive properties the tougher, synthetic-boosted turf might have are moot.

With how the Cohesion PA is focused and tuned, says Hare, the grass on the pitch does not have a significant impact on the acoustic response of the venue.

RF Management: A Very Delicate Dance'

Other challenges are typical of every large broadcast event: particularly, RF management in an area with three major international airports.

This is an incredibly dense RF environment, between all the broadcast partners, sporting administration, and entertainment elements, Hare explains. Management of the radio spectrum for both wireless mics and communications systems is a very delicate dance requiring months of negotiations between all parties and the RF team from FIFA.

Like all such sports events, the World Cup Final Halftime Show is both a live concert and a televised broadcast, which are kept mostly separate. There are several consoles at FOH for the in-stadium audio, addressing the pre-match and Closing Ceremonies, the match itself, and the Halftime Show, Hare explains. In addition to those consoles, mixing is also being done in the production truck for the broadcast, both on the sporting elements and separately for the entertainment elements of the event.

Consoles are shared between artists at FOH to m

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/07/17/halftime-show-at-fifa-world-cup...
	See more stories from svg

More from Sports Video Group