Soccer and music

This year’s FIFA soccer World Cup was a bit special. First off, of course, it was taking place in the US, smack in the middle of the Trump era. Which had a few consequences: the number of games was increased (a full extra round was added, actually, to bump up the volume of content to display on screens); so-called “hydration breaks” were introduced that effectively divided each halftime in two, thus giving more opportunities for advertising to be displayed (see a pattern here?); Trump being Trump, there were downright questionable decisions made by FIFA throughout, none worse than reinstating a US player that had been red carded for no apparent reason, for the first time in the history of an otherwise famously corrupt body. I’m talking about FIFA.

And then there was the halftime show. Inherently, having some music while you wait could make sense. The issue was, though, that they added a full 10 minutes to that halftime break in order to have time to setup — and take down. Which meant that the normal 105 minutes a soccer game takes (45 × 2 + 15 if you wanna check the math) ultimately amounted to 121 — 152 including extra time. And two additional add breaks.

But that is somewhat beside the point: what about the music? For that first ever event, curiosity ran high, at least in this household. And I will be honest: it could have been worse. In under 12 minutes, we heard Madonna (sitting at #1 on the Billboard 200), BTS (arguably the biggest band in the world right now), Justin Bieber (Coachella’s darling), Coldplay and… the one and only Shakira, who performed this competition’s official anthem. To which you should add a few bonuses: the Muppets, Ted Lasso and classical conductor Gustavo Dudamel.

Given the impossible constraints and expectations, the whole ordeal unfolded fairly smoothly, all of the artists involved obviously delivered and what you were left with towards the end was not a negative feeling per se, but rather the thought that this was quite forgettable…