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Madonna, Shakira, BTS to Headline First World Cup Final Half-time Show

Colombian singer Shakira will headline the first World Cup Final half-time show along with Madonna and K-Pop giants BTS. Pablo PORCIUNCULA / AFP
Colombian singer Shakira will headline the first World Cup Final half-time show along with Madonna and K-Pop giants BTS. Pablo PORCIUNCULA / AFP
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Madonna, Shakira, BTS to Headline First World Cup Final Half-time Show

Colombian singer Shakira will headline the first World Cup Final half-time show along with Madonna and K-Pop giants BTS. Pablo PORCIUNCULA / AFP
Colombian singer Shakira will headline the first World Cup Final half-time show along with Madonna and K-Pop giants BTS. Pablo PORCIUNCULA / AFP

Madonna, Shakira and K-pop megastars BTS will headline a Super Bowl-style half-time show at the World Cup final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, FIFA said Thursday.

Coldplay's Chris Martin is curating the show, which is a first for a football World Cup final but has raised concerns about how long half-time will be.

The biggest-ever World Cup, with 48 teams, kicks off on June 11 in the United States, Canada and Mexico, said AFP.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced in March last year that there would be "the first-ever half-time show at a FIFA World Cup final".

He did not say at the time who would be performing or how long the show would last.

"This will be a historic moment for the FIFA World Cup and a show befitting the biggest sporting event in the world," he said on Instagram.

The move mirrors the show held during the final of the 2024 Copa America in Miami, when Colombian star Shakira performed at half-time at the Hard Rock Stadium.

There was also a half-time show at last year's FIFA Club World Cup final, also at MetLife Stadium, which stretched the break in excess of the regulation 15 minutes.

Infantino added that FIFA also planned to "take over" New York's Times Square on the final weekend of the World Cup.

The half-time extravaganza will support FIFA's Global Citizen Education Fund, an initiative working to raise $100 million for children worldwide during the World Cup.

Shakira last week teased the new official song for the World Cup, releasing a brief video of the track filmed at Brazil's iconic Maracana Stadium.

The singer -- who also created the 2010 World Cup anthem "Waka Waka" -- announced the song, titled "Dai Dai" in a post on her Instagram account.

In the 67-second video, Shakira appears on the pitch at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, where she performed in a free concert at the city's Copacabana Beach before two million people.

Holding the "Trionda", the official match ball of the 2026 World Cup, Shakira performed excerpts of the song in English, joined by dancers dressed in the colors of teams including the United States and Colombia.

The song was produced with Nigerian artist Burna Boy and is set for official release on Thursday. The clip, also shared by the FIFA World Cup account, ends with the message: "We're ready!"

Shakira has a long association with the World Cup, performing at the 2006 and 2014 World Cup finals in addition to producing "Waka Waka" for the 2010 tournament.

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Entertainment

‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ Returns to Cannes 20 Years After Record 22‑Minute Ovation

Director Guillermo del Toro poses for portrait photographs for the 20th anniversary of the film "Pan's Labyrinth" at the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP)
Director Guillermo del Toro poses for portrait photographs for the 20th anniversary of the film "Pan's Labyrinth" at the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP)
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‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ Returns to Cannes 20 Years After Record 22‑Minute Ovation

Director Guillermo del Toro poses for portrait photographs for the 20th anniversary of the film "Pan's Labyrinth" at the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP)
Director Guillermo del Toro poses for portrait photographs for the 20th anniversary of the film "Pan's Labyrinth" at the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP)

Mexican director Guillermo del Toro received the longest-ever standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival two decades ago for his historical fantasy "Pan's Labyrinth", which returns this year to the Cannes Classics section.

Speaking to Reuters, del Toro said the 22-minute ovation given to his Spanish-language film 20 years ago produced a "rush of human ‌emotion."

"Alfonso Cuaron ‌was there with me because we ‌produced ⁠the movie together and ⁠he said, 'let it in, man,'" recalled del Toro on Tuesday. "I'm not very good with praise and he said, 'let it in, let love go in' and I experienced it like that."

"Pan's Labyrinth" did not win the top-prize Palme D'Or that year, but del Toro went on to ⁠win the best picture Oscar for his fish ‌monster love story "The Shape ‌of Water" in 2018.

The film, which has been digitally remastered, ‌is set in Spain under the Franco dictatorship and ‌follows a young girl who is enticed by a magical faun to complete three dangerous tasks while also dealing with her ailing pregnant mother and cruel military stepfather.

The concept for "Pan's Labyrinth" came ‌when del Toro was at a low point in his creativity following the September ⁠11 attacks on ⁠the Twin Towers in New York.

"I felt really defenseless," he said, and started to question what the role of a storyteller is in this situation.

"I thought it would be really interesting to have a man of rigidity, a captain, having to face magic - something that seems imaginary, but his own notions of what is right and what is wrong, the captain's notions, are also imaginary," he added.

The cult classic, which will also be shown in 3D, is set to be re-released in theatres later this year.

Entertainment

After the Hobbits, Director Peter Jackson Tackles ‘Tintin’

New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson, who was awarded with an Honorary Palme d'Or, displays his handprints during a ceremony on the "Walk of Fame" of the Croisette at the 79th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 13, 2026. (Reuters)
New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson, who was awarded with an Honorary Palme d'Or, displays his handprints during a ceremony on the "Walk of Fame" of the Croisette at the 79th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 13, 2026. (Reuters)
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After the Hobbits, Director Peter Jackson Tackles ‘Tintin’

New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson, who was awarded with an Honorary Palme d'Or, displays his handprints during a ceremony on the "Walk of Fame" of the Croisette at the 79th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 13, 2026. (Reuters)
New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson, who was awarded with an Honorary Palme d'Or, displays his handprints during a ceremony on the "Walk of Fame" of the Croisette at the 79th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 13, 2026. (Reuters)

"The Lord of the Rings" maestro Peter Jackson revealed Wednesday that he is taking on another cult classic -- "Tintin".

The New Zealand director said that he has been working on a script for a film about the boy reporter created by the Belgian cartoonist Herge nearly a century ago.

Jackson said his film would be a sequel to Steven Spielberg's animated film "The Adventures of Tintin" in 2011, which he co-produced.

"The deal was that Steven directs one and I direct another," he said at the Cannes Film Festival, where he received an honorary Palme d'Or lifetime's achievement award Tuesday.

"So Steven did his film, then for 15 years I haven't made mine. I feel very awkward about that," he said. But he hasn't been wasting any time while at Cannes.

In between galas and picking up his prize, "I've been working with Fran (Walsh, his partner) on another Tintin script.

"I'm in the hotel room down the road writing the script and sending pages to New Zealand," he told AFP.

While he refused to say which of the Tintin albums he was drawing on, he hinted strongly that it will begin where Spielberg's film finished, with "Red Rackham's Treasure".

"It's not the way that it carries on, but it begins exactly where the last film ends," he told AFP.

- 'Old fat rebel' -

Jackson said he makes "films that I really want to see myself", and the Tintin movie will be no different.

"When we get a draft done we will send it to Steven (Spielberg)... and he might say that he doesn't like it, and maybe we should do it with different books. But I don't think he will."

Jackson, who turned JRR Tolkien's trilogy into one of the biggest box office franchises ever, said he loved Tintin, whose adventurous japes in comics like "Tintin in Tibet" and "The Blue Lotus" have been a staple of European children's bookshelves since the 1930s.

Jackson, who owns Weta FX, one of the world's most important special effects companies, which has worked on "Avatar" as well as "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, also weighed into the debate on artificial intelligence that has been raging at Cannes.

He said that while he thought AI is "going to destroy the world", when it comes to its use in film, "I don't dislike it at all."

"I mean, to me, it's just a special effect. It's no different from other special effects."

While he later played down his remarks "about the robots taking over", he said he could not see AI going much further than the "cowboyland" of short videos on Instagram and YouTube.

"To make feature films the rights have all to be authorized and lawyers have to go through things with a toothcomb," something that would limit AI's use.

Jackson, 64, said he still sees himself as the rebel who was kicked out of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes for wearing shorts when he premiered his debut film, "Bad Taste" in 1987, but was now an "old fat rebel".

And he said he still hopes to make a movie inspired by the British Dambusters raid on the Ruhr dams in Germany during World War II if "I live long enough".

Entertainment

‘Shame on Hollywood’: Cannes-Winning Writer Rails at Stance on Gaza

(L-R) Host Didier Allouch, Jury Members Diego Cespedes, Ruth Negga, Stellan Skarsgard, Demi Moore, Jury President Park Chan-wook, Chloe Zhao, Isaach de Bankole, Laura Wandel and Paul Laverty attend the press conference for Feature Films Jury during the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival, in Cannes, France, 12 May 2026. (EPA)
(L-R) Host Didier Allouch, Jury Members Diego Cespedes, Ruth Negga, Stellan Skarsgard, Demi Moore, Jury President Park Chan-wook, Chloe Zhao, Isaach de Bankole, Laura Wandel and Paul Laverty attend the press conference for Feature Films Jury during the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival, in Cannes, France, 12 May 2026. (EPA)
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‘Shame on Hollywood’: Cannes-Winning Writer Rails at Stance on Gaza

(L-R) Host Didier Allouch, Jury Members Diego Cespedes, Ruth Negga, Stellan Skarsgard, Demi Moore, Jury President Park Chan-wook, Chloe Zhao, Isaach de Bankole, Laura Wandel and Paul Laverty attend the press conference for Feature Films Jury during the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival, in Cannes, France, 12 May 2026. (EPA)
(L-R) Host Didier Allouch, Jury Members Diego Cespedes, Ruth Negga, Stellan Skarsgard, Demi Moore, Jury President Park Chan-wook, Chloe Zhao, Isaach de Bankole, Laura Wandel and Paul Laverty attend the press conference for Feature Films Jury during the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival, in Cannes, France, 12 May 2026. (EPA)

Hollywood should be ashamed of the way it has treated stars like Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem and Mark Ruffalo for opposing Israel's war in Gaza, a member of the Cannes Film Festival jury said Tuesday, with big studios conspicuously absent this year.

Paul Laverty, who wrote two films that won Cannes' top prize, was cheered as he lambasted the studios and praised the French festival for using an image of Sarandon in "Thelma and Louise" for its poster this year.

"Isn't it fascinating to see Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem and Mark Ruffalo blacklisted because of their views in opposing the murder of women and children in Gaza? Shame on Hollywood, people who do that," the Scottish-born writer, who was arrested last year at a pro-Palestine protest, added.

"They're the best of us," said Laverty, who won best screenplay at Cannes for Ken Loach's "I, Daniel Blake" and "The Wind that Shakes the Barley".

"I just hope we don't get bombed now," he joked.

The leftwinger made an impassioned plea for filmmakers not to shy away from politics "when madmen lead the blind", quoting Shakespeare's "King Lear".

Laverty did not mention US leader Donald Trump, but his presidency and the war in Gaza have hung heavy over film festivals over the last few years.

South Korea director Park Chan-wook, who heads the jury awarding the Palme d'Or, the top prize at Cannes, also defended the place of politics in film.

"Art and politics are not concepts that are in conflict with each other. As long as they are artistically expressed, they are valuable," said the maker of "Oldboy" and "The Handmaiden".

With Meta, the owners of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, signing a multi-year sponsorship deal with Cannes, Laverty also warned about "the concentration of power" by Big Tech.

"We are beginning to realize that we should not let these tech bros billionaires, mostly right-wing libertarians, dictate how we live our lives," he added, with artificial intelligence another hot topic at the festival.

Hollywood star Demi Moore, who is also on the jury, said she was also skeptical of AI's place in the industry, though not against it.

"There is nothing to fear because one can never replace what true art comes from, because it comes from the soul," she told reporters.

"That, they can never recreate."