In a colorful, historic halftime World Cup show, KPop sensations BTS stormed the stage alongside co-headliners Shakira, Justin Bieber and Madonna, bringing a classic track to more than 80,000 fans in a packed Metlife Stadium.
All decked out in red costumes, the multiple record-breaking septet comprising Suga, j-hope, V, Jungkook, RM, Jimin and Jin came on right after Madonna opened the halftime show. The game so far had been rather dry with Spain and Argentina both curbing each other to a goalless first half, so the halftime show was a welcome break while the teams no doubt went back to the drawing board.
Madonna brought out Brazilian football stars Ronaldinho Gaúcho and Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, also the original Ronaldo before Cristiano burst into the picture.
The entire show was only a tight 11 minutes, so her set quickly transitioned to Gustavo Dudamel conducting the New York Philharmonic and Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, accompanied by no less than the Muppets on band.
And then, from in between the blue-suited orchestra popped up Jungkook with the familiar opening notes of their hit 2020 track “Dynamite”. There was a lot of speculation about which song the group would perform for the show, especially considering they are in the middle of their sold out ARIRANG world tour promoting their newest album of the same name.
At the end, they stuck to “Dynamite”, which makes sense considering it’s entirely in English and easy to sing along to (as a lot of the audience was).
Historically it’s also quite special; “Dynamite” was the band’s first number-one single in the US, where the World Cup is being held, as well as the track that earned BTS their first ever Grammy nomination (also the first Grammy nomination for a K-pop group, period).
The nomination, which was for Best Pop Duo or Group Performance, ultimately did not result in a win, but it marked a turning point in how the Western music industry acknowledged K-pop commercially.
It was a surreal scene for anyone who has followed the group’s trajectory — seven men who, three World Cups ago, were performing to few hundreds of fans in South Korean venues, now standing on a stage inside a 82,500-capacity stadium in New Jersey while the entire world watched.
Considering that this is the FIFA World Cup’s first ever halftime show, this appearance is yet another record that BTS has added to their brimming hats.
BTS will return to this exact Metlife Stadium on August 1 and 2 as part of their ongoing ARIRANG tour.
Watch the full “Dynamite” performance below.
