World Cup half-time set lifts Bieber and Madonna streams

NEW YORK (AP): An 11-minute half-time package at the World Cup’s opening final weekend has delivered clear streaming lifts for the acts who took the stage.

Madonna, Justin Bieber, BTS and Shakira delivered shortened versions of hit tracks during the tournament’s first half-time programme on Sunday, staged just outside New York. Industry tracker Luminate then measured how those songs performed online.

The firm compared global streams for each number across Friday and Saturday — the two days before the final — with Sunday’s final and the following Monday. The results were striking.

Justin Bieber’s Everything Hallelujah more than doubled worldwide, climbing 110 per cent from 592,000 streams to 1.25 million. Madonna’s Music advanced 66 per cent, from 193,000 to 321,000. BTS’ Dynamite rose 43 per cent, from 2.14 million to 3.05 million.

Shakira and Burna Boy’s Dai Dai, the official anthem for the 2026 World Cup, added 3.48 million global streams — a 24 per cent rise from 14.78 million to 18.27 million. In the United States alone, Dai Dai climbed 52 per cent, from 1.68 million streams to 2.55 million.

Luminate noted that the gains were concentrated in the tracks played on the pitch last weekend, not across those artists’ wider catalogues. That pattern is familiar from Super Bowl half-time acts. Bad Bunny, after his record-setting Super Bowl set this year, saw his full catalogue surge 175 per cent in the US on the Monday after the game versus the Monday before.