Many of the football purists hated the existence of the first ever FIFA World Cup final halftime show and the performance itself didn’t change their mind. On the other side of that conversation, there are people who watched the event just for halftime. And still others who argue that while a halftime show during a football match isn’t tradition, given that the World Cup final was being played in America, where halftime shows are a tradition, the spectacle made sense. Me personally? I’m here for BTS.

On Friday and Saturday night, RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook were in Paris, playing two sold out shows in front of the largest audiences of their careers – 88,000 ARMY gathered at the Stade de France on each night to close out the European leg of the ARIRANG World Tour. And, as they always do, BTS gave it everything. EVERYTHING. They operate on full throttle the entire time, it’s an exhilarating and an exhausting experience.

This is noteworthy because right after wrapping up the concert on Saturday, they had to get on a plane and be in New York immediately to rehearse for the World Cup halftime. It’s an ambitious ask, and an even more ambitious task to execute for these seven artists – on their bodies and on their mental bandwidth. But if there’s anyone could pull it off, it’s Bangtan. You want them to hit their marks? Check. You want them to bring the energy? Check. You want them to be in perfect synchronicity with the choreo? Check. And the mics were on, they were live. That control room had complete confidence that even with the limited amount of time these seven artists had to practice, they would pull it off. Here’s a side-by-side of what that looked like onscreen and off.

As expected, given the intense loyalty of the fanbase, BTS’s appearance was expected to be one of the most viral moments from the World Cup final. Given the ongoing lore within the fandom between BTS and Justin Bieber, their meeting was also expected to be one of the most viral moments. And it was. There still isn’t, at the time of this writing, a posed official photo of the eight of them, but a shot of V being the first to greet and hug JB after his song has been viewed millions of times.

And their conversation as they all waited to go back out for the finale has been pored over millions of times by both fandoms.

Bieber aside, there’s also this adorable video of the kids from PS22 surrounding Jimin and Tae at the end of the performance. That’s why so many of the artists wanted to participate – because the intention behind it was to create more access and opportunity for children. Let this be the purest takeaway from an event that, for sure, is run by corrupt people by a controversial organisation: for the kids on the field yesterday, it meant everything.

Look at this baby with the tears streaming down his face after meeting his football heroes. As polarising as the show has been, with differing opinions about its necessity and execution, there’s a group of kids who had the time of their lives.

 

As for the most unexpectedly viral BTS moment from the World Cup, it was when they met Speed. Speed’s content is always heavily trafficked. But this took it to nuclear levels. And his enthusiasm is authentic and not new, not just for this event. He’s been talking about BTS for at least three years, has mentioned them often in his livestreams. His reaction to finding out that BTS was in the vicinity when he was livestreaming from the match spiked the server. And the video of him meeting them (20 million at the time of this writing) is the most viewed of all his World Cup finals posts on Instagram, and his second most viewed from the tournament overall after the video of him crying when Cristiano Ronaldo, the most followed person on IG, and Portugal got knocked out. And the gap is closing.

It’s not just Speed’s over-the-top and CORRECT enthusiasm over meeting RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook. It’s not just the standing flip. It’s also the fact that they were just as excited. RM actually called him, unprompted, by his government name, Darren Watkins Jr. Hobi then starts barking, one of Speed’s signature sounds. Several of them have since left comments on that post. This is one of those organically explosive digital scenes that you cannot predict – a gift, really, to FIFA and they probably don’t even deserve it.

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BTS greet Justin Bieber after his performance at the World Cup halftime show/BTS performs at the World Cup halftime show, July 19, 2026

BTS and Justin Bieber perform at the World Cup halftime show, July 19, 2026

Justin Bieber performs at the World Cup halftime show, July 19, 2026

Photo credits: Jess Stiles/ZUMA Press Wire/Michael Zemanek/Shutterstock

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