It’s been a week of global emptiness following the resolution of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Sunday, where Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 to put an end to an extremely fun six weeks of tournament action. While La Roja celebrates and the 47 countries previously eliminated lick their wounds and begin to prepare for 2030, it’s also a good time to evaluate the impact the Cup had on the pop stars most notably involved — in the tournament’s official theme music, in some of the countries official (or unofficial) anthems, and of course, in the star-studded first-ever final halftime show.
On this week’s Pop Star Performance Review episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, we’re already getting wistful about the 2026 World Cup and the artists and songs that helped to define it. Host and soccer novice Andrew Unterberger is joined by the more-football-versed Thomas Smith of Billboard UK to run down what went right and what went wrong with the music at the tournament — as well as with the performance of his own much-beloved (and occasionally much-hated) Team England.
Along the way, we answer all the most pressing questions about music at the 2026 Cup: Was the final halftime show grotesque, inevitable or both? Did Chris Martin make sense as the guy to put the first version of it together? How are we feeling about that Justin Bieber acoustic performance? Did Madonna and BTS really need to choose such old songs when they both have new albums out? Is “Dai Dai” already a World Cup classic (and should Shakira have just done the whole halftime)? Did Oasis’ “Wonderwall” actually gain new resonance as a Team England anthem — and how heartbroken are we that it got stuck at No. 2 on the UK charts again? And perhaps most importantly: What are we gonna do with our lives now that we don’t have the World Cup every day?
Check it out above, and please subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom.
And as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts — if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:
Transgender Law Center
Trans Lifeline
Destination Tomorrow
Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe
Human Rights Campaign – In Your Area
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