FIFA said on Wednesday that Post Malone will headline the closing ceremony before the 2026 FIFA World Cup final, putting a new layer of pageantry in front of Sunday’s title match at New York New Jersey Stadium. The ceremony begins 90 minutes before kickoff, at 1:30 p.m. ET, and will also feature Tom Cruise, Laura Pausini, Nicole Scherzinger, Robbie Williams and IShowSpeed.
Jennifer Hudson will sing the U.S. national anthem, giving the match its formal start after the pre-kickoff show wraps. The final is being staged at New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where FIFA is trying to turn the biggest game in the men’s tournament into a full-scale entertainment event, not just a championship match.
The announcement lands now because the final is days away, and FIFA is widening the entertainment around it even as it keeps the ceremony itself separate from the halftime show. Earlier this month, the federation named Justin Bieber as a co-headliner for the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final Halftime Show alongside Madonna, BTS and Shakira, with Burna Boy, Gustavo Dudamel, the PS22 Chorus and Coldplay also attached. Chris Martin is curating that show, and Global Citizen is producing it.
That split matters. The closing ceremony is its own pre-kickoff program, while the halftime show is a separate production inside the match itself, which means the final now has two distinct entertainment moments rather than one. FIFA has not fully explained how the performers will be divided between those two stages, but the lineup makes clear that the night is being built as a layered spectacle, with Post Malone at the front end and a different star package waiting for the break in play.
The scale fits the tournament around it. The 2026 FIFA World Cup is the first men's World Cup with an expanded 48-team field, and it is being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. The event began June 11 in Mexico City, and opening ceremonies were also held in Toronto and Los Angeles before the first whistle, so Sunday’s final is meant to read as the last chapter of the same traveling show. If FIFA’s plan works, the ceremony at 1:30 p.m. will not feel like an add-on. It will feel like the tournament closing the circle before the champions are crowned.
