BTS Headlined the World Cup's First-Ever Halftime Show. The Loudest Crowd Reaction of the Day Came After the Music Stopped.
BTS opened an 11-minute set with "Dynamite" at the first halftime show in FIFA World Cup Final history on July 19, sharing the New York/New Jersey Stadium field with Madonna, Shakira, Justin Bieber and Burna Boy. By the time the match ended - Spain 1, Argentina 0, on a Ferran Torres goal in extra time - the loudest reaction of the day belonged to someone who never touched a microphone: President Trump, booed loudly as he walked out for the trophy presentation.
Coldplay's Chris Martin curated the halftime show, which also brought out conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the New York Philharmonic, Venezuela's Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, the PS22 Chorus and the Muppets' Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem for a closing original number, "We Dance." BTS' contribution - "Dynamite," the group's first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 - was performed in coordinated red, white and black outfits, without any advance announcement of the song choice. Produced by Global Citizen, the show raised money for the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, with $1 from every 2026 World Cup ticket sold going toward the initiative.
Not everyone was won over. Asked live on BBC to name the halftime show's best moment, former England captain Wayne Rooney didn't hesitate: "Honestly, when the show ended." His assessment traveled fast; South Korean outlet Star News picked it up within hours as evidence the show had split opinion even among people paid to watch football, not pop.
Trump's reception was less split. According to the Associated Press and Reuters, boos began when Trump appeared on the stadium's video screens near the end of Jennifer Hudson's national anthem performance, before kickoff, and returned - louder - when he walked onto the field afterward alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino to present Spain's trophy. It was Trump's second dose of stadium booing at the same venue in just over a year: he was jeered during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup final at the same stadium, both during the anthem and again at the trophy presentation following Chelsea's win over Paris Saint-Germain. The July 19 appearance made him the first sitting U.S. president to attend a World Cup final held on American soil.
The politics around the tournament didn't stay confined to the crowd noise. Iran boycotted December's World Cup draw after the U.S. denied visas to several delegation members. More recently, a contested red-card decision involving player Folarin Balogun - which Trump was reported to have weighed in on before it was overturned - drew criticism from parts of the international soccer community, with some reports suggesting the episode could complicate Infantino's path to reelection as FIFA president.
None of that touched BTS directly. The group's own account of the night looked considerably quieter: a single social media post reading "260719 FIFA World Cup 2026," alongside photos from the field, and the full performance uploaded to BTS' YouTube channel within hours. Backstage moments circulated widely on their own terms - streamer iShowSpeed, with more than 30 million YouTube subscribers, was filmed screaming and jumping before hugging each member; Jimin, who has spoken about growing up watching the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, was photographed on the same kind of field two decades later, a detail fans circulated under the hashtags #BTSxWorldCup2026 and #BTSHALFTIMESHOW.
BTS leader RM had addressed the booking once before it happened, telling a Brussels concert crowd earlier this month, "So we're going to the halftime show for the final match," in what turned out to be the only public comment any member made about the show ahead of time. No World Cup, men's or women's, had ever staged a halftime show before this one, in a tournament history stretching back 96 years.
By Monday morning, the two most-discussed moments from Sunday's final weren't strictly about the football at all: a boy band's first Billboard No. 1 played to a global stadium audience, and a sitting U.S. president being booed twice in the same afternoon at the same stadium where he'd been booed once already. Both were captured on the same broadcast, minutes apart.
