More than ever, the pressure has been on the games to deliver something—a last gasp of monoculture, as so many observers have put it—and more than ever, they are delivering. A recent CNBC survey found that around 50% of Americans, regardless of political affiliation, viewed at least one World Cup match, and ticket resale prices spiked to about $10,000 the day before the final. Whether it was the social media antics of Norway’s giant viking of a striker, Erling Haaland, or the TikTok fantasies lavished on England’s dashing, powerhouse midfielder Jude Bellingham, the primary characters of the tournament had crossed over beyond the game, with faces as recognizable as the fans in attendance on Sunday: Timothée Chalamet, Kylie Jenner, Jalen Brunson, Zohran Mamdani, Donald Trump.

As Argentina and Spain’s players left the field, a rainbow tarp was rolled out over the surface. This was not the all-out, immersive show that is a ritual of Super Bowl halftimes but a somewhat humbler affair: a series of musical vignettes layered in quick succession. In the stadium, the individual performances felt underwhelming, and the mood in the crowd was relatively staid. For the most part, the performers played straight to the cameras trailing them around the field, making for a visual presentation that filled TV monitors but only occupied a small portion of the stadium’s space and attention. While Bieber wrapped his intimate performance, Burna Boy and Shakira were setting up on the opposite side of the field, a phalanx of yellow-clad dancers assembling around them. (There was also a hodgepodge of cultural ephemera: the Muppets joining an orchestral rendition of “Seven Nation Army,” and Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt, appearing as Ted Lasso and Coach Beard, introducing Bieber’s performance.)

The halftime show was produced in partnership with Global Citizen, the international anti-poverty organization, and aimed to raise money for the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, the advisory board of which includes Infantino, Ivanka Trump, The Weeknd, Serena Williams, and Bank of America co-president Jim DeMare. When Smith issued his tirade against the halftime show, he focused in particular on FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Trump, who watched the final together on Sunday in another show of their close alliance. The notion, as echoed by so many soccer fans, was that corporate and political interests were interfering with the integrity of the match.

Few of those concerns were in the air as the halftime performers retreated from the field, the tarp was rolled back, and the sprinkler system was activated to prepare the field for the final moments of the World Cup. The tournament had minted all manner of stars and produced all measure of pageantry, and if a FIFA halftime show was not quite a hit on its first attempt, it still was in keeping with the action that had preceded it. Bieber exited the field as wordlessly as he had entered it, as reluctant and enigmatic as ever, but the World Cup had ultimately provided just as natural a stage for him as Coachella.