Before Argentina and Spain kick off at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, the biggest World Cup in history gets its send-off — and FIFA has stacked it. Post Malone will headline the FIFA World Cup 2026 closing ceremony, joined by Robbie Williams, Laura Pausini, Nicole Scherzinger and IShowSpeed, with a special appearance from Tom Cruise and Jennifer Hudson delivering the United States national anthem before kickoff.
Here’s the part a lot of people are getting mixed up: this is not the halftime show. Sunday, July 19 has two completely separate music events at the same stadium — a closing ceremony 90 minutes before kickoff, and the first-ever World Cup final halftime show during the break. Different producers, different lineups, different start times. This guide covers the closing one: who’s on it, when it starts, and how to watch.
Quick Facts
| Event | FIFA World Cup 2026 closing ceremony |
|---|---|
| Date | Sunday, July 19, 2026 |
| Start time | 1:30 PM ET — 90 minutes before kickoff |
| Gates open | 11:00 AM ET |
| Venue | New York New Jersey Stadium (MetLife Stadium), East Rutherford, New Jersey |
| Headliner | Post Malone |
| Also performing | Robbie Williams, Laura Pausini, Nicole Scherzinger, IShowSpeed |
| Special appearance | Tom Cruise |
| National anthem | Jennifer Hudson (USA) |
| Produced by | Balich Wonder Studio |
| The match | Argentina vs Spain, 3:00 PM ET |
| Watch | FOX and FOX One (English) · Telemundo and Peacock (Spanish) |
Post Malone Is Headlining the Closing Ceremony
FIFA confirmed Post Malone as the closing ceremony headliner on July 15, four days before the final. On paper he’s an unusual pick for a global football audience — he isn’t a stadium-anthem specialist the way Shakira is, and he has no prior FIFA history at all. In practice he might be the most logical name on the whole weekend’s bill.
Post Malone is the rare artist whose catalogue has already done the thing FIFA wants the ceremony to do: cross borders without needing translation. He has nine diamond certifications. “Sunflower” is the highest-certified single in RIAA history. “Circles,” “rockstar,” “Congratulations,” “Better Now,” “Psycho,” “White Iverson” and “I Fall Apart” have all cleared diamond too. That’s a body of work that plays in São Paulo and Seoul and Manchester without anyone reaching for a lyric sheet.
He also arrives at an interesting moment in his own career. His last album, the country pivot F-1 Trillion, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2024 and reset his whole public identity. He’s currently touring stadiums, and his follow-up — a 40-track double album titled The Eternal Buzz — has been teased since April with no release date confirmed. A World Cup final in front of a global audience is, at minimum, an extremely well-timed piece of promotion.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino framed the booking as a way to “ignite the atmosphere before the world’s attention turns to the two finalists.” Which is a polite way of saying: get 80,000 people loud before the anthems start.
Who Else Is Performing at the Closing Ceremony
FIFA has confirmed four more performers alongside Post Malone, plus one Hollywood wildcard. The federation also said more names could be announced in the days before the final, so this lineup may still grow.
Robbie Williams
The most quietly perfect booking of the lot. Williams opened the 2018 World Cup in Moscow — he walked out at the Luzhniki with “Let Me Entertain You,” duetted with Russian soprano Aida Garifullina, closed on “Rock DJ,” and flipped off the live global broadcast on his way out. Eight years later FIFA has invited him back to close a tournament instead of open one.
He’s also the only performer on the bill with genuine football credentials. Williams co-founded Soccer Aid for UNICEF in 2006 and has led England out in the charity match repeatedly since. If anyone on the pitch on Sunday actually understands what a stadium crowd wants at 1:30 in the afternoon, it’s him.
Laura Pausini
The bridge to the final’s two finalists. Pausini is Italian, but she built the second half of her career in Spanish — she’s one of the very few European artists who became a genuine superstar across Spain and Latin America rather than just visiting. She won a Grammy for Escucha, has multiple Latin Grammys, earned an Oscar nomination for “Io sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead, and hosted Eurovision when it came to Turin in 2022.
On a day where Argentina play Spain, booking the one artist beloved in both Buenos Aires and Madrid is not an accident.
Nicole Scherzinger
The former Pussycat Dolls frontwoman is arguably in the strongest vocal form of her career right now. Her run as Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd. on Broadway won her a Tony and rewrote how the industry talks about her — from pop frontwoman to serious performer. She’s a big, technical, hold-the-note singer, which is exactly the register a ceremony like this tends to need somewhere in the middle of the running order.
IShowSpeed
The internet’s football obsessive gets his moment. FIFA hasn’t specified what Speed will actually be doing — his role is listed but not explained — though he does have an obvious card to play: his track “World Cup (Champions)” was added to the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Album in June after going viral, FIFA DM’d him to tell him so, and he responded with a backflip on stream.
Whether he performs it, presents something, or simply appears, putting a 21-year-old streamer on the same bill as Madonna’s weekend is a fairly loud statement about where FIFA thinks its next generation of fans lives.
Tom Cruise
FIFA has confirmed Cruise for a “special appearance” and pointedly declined to say what it involves. Given his last major stadium cameo — abseiling off the roof of the Stade de France at the Paris 2024 Olympic closing ceremony and riding a motorcycle out with the flag — the speculation is writing itself. FIFA hasn’t confirmed anything of the sort, and it’s worth being clear that his role remains unannounced.
Jennifer Hudson Will Sing the National Anthem
Separate from the ceremony itself, EGOT winner Jennifer Hudson will perform the United States national anthem immediately before kickoff. It’s a big-swing booking for a notoriously punishing song — the Star-Spangled Banner has an octave-and-a-half range that has broken far more experienced stadium singers than most people realise — and Hudson is one of maybe a dozen living vocalists you’d trust with it cold, on a Sunday afternoon, in front of five billion people.
Argentina’s Himno Nacional Argentino and Spain’s wordless Marcha Real will follow as the teams’ anthems.
Closing Ceremony vs Halftime Show: What’s Actually Different
This is the single most confusing thing about Sunday, so here it is plainly.
| Closing ceremony | Halftime show | |
|---|---|---|
| When | 1:30 PM ET, before kickoff | During halftime |
| Length | Not announced | About 11 minutes |
| Headliner | Post Malone | Justin Bieber, Madonna, Shakira, BTS |
| Also on | Robbie Williams, Laura Pausini, Nicole Scherzinger, IShowSpeed, Tom Cruise | Burna Boy, Gustavo Dudamel, PS22 Chorus |
| Produced by | Balich Wonder Studio | Global Citizen, with Live Nation and Done + Dusted |
| Curated by | — | Chris Martin (Coldplay) |
| Purpose | Celebrating the 39-day tournament | Supporting the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund |
Two different shows, two different production companies, two different sets of artists, roughly two hours apart. The closing ceremony is the traditional one — every World Cup has had a version of it. The halftime show is the genuinely unprecedented part, the first in the tournament’s 96-year history, and the reason Chris Martin’s name is on everything this month despite Coldplay not actually headlining.
The closing ceremony is produced in creative partnership with Balich Wonder Studio, the outfit behind the Qatar 2022 World Cup ceremonies. FIFA World Cup 2026 COO Heimo Schirgi said it will bring the tournament “full circle through music, culture and football” — echoing the opening ceremonies that started all of this 39 days ago.
What Songs Will They Perform?
FIFA has not released a setlist, and based on how the opening ceremonies were handled, it probably won’t before the artists walk out. So the honest answer is: nobody outside the production knows yet.
That said, a few things are reasonable to expect. Post Malone’s diamond-certified singles — particularly “Sunflower” and “Circles” — are the closest things he has to universal crowd songs, and a global-audience booking usually leans on the universal ones. Robbie Williams has closed a World Cup ceremony with “Rock DJ” before, and “Angels” is one of the most reliable stadium singalongs in the English-language catalogue. IShowSpeed has an official-album track sitting right there.
Beyond that, it’s guesswork. FIFA has said fans in the stadium will have an active role in the show and has asked ticket-holders to arrive early, which usually signals a card-stunt or mass-participation element rather than anything you’d find on a tracklist.
My two cents: The interesting tension here is that FIFA has booked a closing ceremony that’s almost entirely Anglo-American and then dropped Laura Pausini into the middle of it as the one artist who speaks to the two teams actually playing. Whoever made that call was paying attention. Also — putting Robbie Williams on a World Cup stage again after 2018 is a genuinely funny risk, and I mean that as a compliment.
How to Watch the Closing Ceremony
In the United States, FOX has English-language rights to the final and will carry the pre-match programming; the broadcast also streams on FOX One and the FOX Sports app. Spanish-language coverage runs on Telemundo, with streaming on Peacock and the Telemundo app. Outside the US, check your local FIFA rights-holder — FIFA lists official broadcasters by territory.
The ceremony starts at 1:30 PM ET, with the match kicking off at 3:00 PM ET. If you’re only tuning in for the football, you’ll miss it — the whole point of a pre-match ceremony is that it happens before the part everyone sets a reminder for.
Gates at MetLife open at 11:00 AM ET, four hours before kickoff, with pre-match activations running from then.
For everything else in this tournament’s soundtrack, our guide to where to stream the full FIFA World Cup 2026 soundtrack covers every platform, and our history of World Cup anthems from 1962 to 2026 puts Sunday in context.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is performing at the World Cup 2026 closing ceremony?
Post Malone is headlining. Robbie Williams, Laura Pausini, Nicole Scherzinger and IShowSpeed will also perform, with a special appearance from Tom Cruise. Jennifer Hudson will sing the United States national anthem before kickoff. FIFA has said further artists and guests may still be announced.
What time does the World Cup 2026 closing ceremony start?
1:30 PM ET on Sunday, July 19, 2026 — 90 minutes before the 3:00 PM ET kickoff at MetLife Stadium. Stadium gates open at 11:00 AM ET.
Is the closing ceremony the same as the halftime show?
No. They’re two separate events on the same day. The closing ceremony runs before kickoff and is headlined by Post Malone. The halftime show runs during the break, lasts about 11 minutes, and is co-headlined by Justin Bieber, Madonna, Shakira and BTS.
Where can I watch the World Cup 2026 closing ceremony?
In the US, on FOX and streaming via FOX One and the FOX Sports app in English, or Telemundo, Peacock and the Telemundo app in Spanish. International viewers should check their local FIFA rights-holder.
What songs will Post Malone perform at the World Cup final?
FIFA hasn’t released a setlist. His diamond-certified catalogue includes “Sunflower,” “Circles,” “rockstar,” “Congratulations” and “Better Now,” but nothing has been confirmed.
Who is producing the World Cup 2026 closing ceremony?
Balich Wonder Studio, in creative partnership with FIFA. The studio previously produced the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Why is Tom Cruise at the World Cup final?
FIFA has confirmed a “special appearance” but hasn’t said what it involves. His role remains unannounced.