FIFA World Cup final halftime shows are getting bigger and bigger. Variety has exclusively learned that the event will also include members of the New York Philharmonic and Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, who will jointly perform a memorial performance for Venezuela following its recent devastating earthquake.
Gustavo Dudamel, who will step down as Music Director and Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and become Music and Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic in September, will conduct the orchestra, and this will be the first time that members of the New York Philharmonic and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra will perform together.
Dudamel and the orchestra will join a packed lineup for an 11-minute halftime show at New Jersey Stadium in New York on July 19th. FIFA and Global Citizen partnered to produce the event, with Coldplay’s Chris Martin curating the show (in his role as Global Citizen Festival’s international curator) and Done+Dusted producing. Madonna, Justin Bieber, BTS, Shakira, Burna Boy, PS22 Chorus with Coldplay, and The Muppets are also scheduled to perform.
“I think this will create some absolutely unforgettable moments,” Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans said of the orchestra’s operation. “This is a very timely, important and urgent tribute to Venezuela’s resilience after the earthquake. It all focuses on this urgent need for world leaders to stand up in support of Venezuela. And having these two legendary orchestras come together for the first time in history also reinforces the message of global unity and love that is woven throughout the halftime show, which I think is the essence of Chris Martin’s creative direction here.”
Evans credits Martin with getting Dudamel, the New York Philharmonic, and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra on board.
“He was a big fan of Gustavo and reached out to Gustavo, and Gustavo himself was very passionate about bringing these two orchestras together for this historic moment,” Evans said. “This is a credit to Gustavo. He should be given huge props for this. It’s obviously a very expensive job to pull this off, and all the artists perform for free. And the fact that they rallied to get additional support to bring in Simón is a credit to Gustavo. It’s a credit to him that Venezuela’s Bolivarian Symphony Orchestra came on board. He went above and beyond.”
Noheli Oliveros
Speaking of going above and beyond, here’s where you need to be careful. The halftime show is very limited in what can be pitched, so orchestra members must perform while standing. Part of Done+Dusted’s job is to keep the pitch (aka field) clean. So unlike Bad Bunny’s recent Super Bowl halftime show, there won’t be a heavy, elaborate production.
“We have been working with FIFA for many months on our approach to the show, how we can take it in and how we can take it out and leave it exactly as we found it,” said Guy Carrington, Partner and Executive Producer at Done+Dusted. “To be honest, the match is the most important thing here. Everyone is there for the World Cup final. We’re there to make an entertaining show, but we can’t allow that to come at the expense of the match. That’s why we’ve spent a lot of time working with FIFA, from the lightweight camera system, to the way we look at the different wheels on the carts, to the shoes people wear. All of that is very carefully planned and carefully choreographed.”
“A lot of our rehearsal time is spent trying to figure out how to bring this in quickly but safely and without damaging the grass,” he added. “This is a huge undertaking and a lot of time and effort has gone into that level of detail so that when the players come on in the second half they are playing on exactly the same pitch as they left on.”
Dan and Dusted executive producer and director Hamish Hamilton, who just received an Emmy nomination for directing the Bad Bunny halftime show at the Super Bowl, is busy testing the field in Miami. This will include determining how to lay large pitch covers and investigating the effects of people and cameras crossing the grass.
“You know, I’ve been to several Super Bowls over the years, and the turf impact risk assessment that we’ve done on this is much better than what we’ve done in the NFL,” Hamilton said. “The NFL is obviously very defensive, but this is a whole new level. We took the whole team to a section of grass in Miami. We took away the partial field crossing. We took away the camera system, which literally took everything out. We redesigned it. We replaced the wheels. We used lighter cameras. We used lighter lenses. Literally every piece of technical equipment was examined: the number of people, what they were wearing, how they moved, how much time they spent on the grass, how many times they could run on the grass, how much time they spent on the grass. It’s a new, challenging and fun process.”
Carrington describes it as “a bit of an exploration in restraint. Our tendency has always been to go big, but this time it was about creating a performance that felt organic to the moment. We didn’t have the time or space to build something huge, and that wasn’t really the concept from the beginning.”
The halftime show aims to benefit the FIFA Global Citizenship Education Fund, which is working to raise $100 million to expand access to education and soccer for children around the world. Evans said aid to Venezuela also became part of the goal.
“We have encouraged world leaders from footballing powers such as France, Germany and Spain to actively participate in supporting Venezuela as part of the FIFA Global Citizenship Education Fund,” he said. “We have great news that Canada will be participating, we have Portugal joining us, but now that France is doing very well, we want President Macron. President Macron has to take a leadership position because his country has definitely done well in the World Cup. It’s time for the government to step up as well.”
Carrington praised Martin for pushing the theme of the halftime show “to bring people together, to bring great artists together, to bring the world together,” and said that in contrast to traditional Super Bowl halftime shows, this was about multiple artists collaborating and sharing their performances. “Chris’ big belief is that this should feel like it represents the world. It’s about creating moments that feel natural to the tournament. And all of our talent really bought into that vision from the beginning.”
Carrington and Hamilton didn’t want to give any more surprises in Sunday’s halftime show, but Hamilton hinted, “There’s a great message at the end, so I’ll leave it at that. In fact, for me, putting on this show with people from all over the world, artists from all over the world, it definitely reflects the joy that the World Cup gives. And there’s a great moment at the end.”
