While Kendrick Lamar recently achieved a major mainstream accomplishment in the form of his Super Bowl LIX halftime show, Drake could end up performing a halftime show of his own that would likely trounce K-Dot’s record-breaking viewership numbers.
The FIFA World Cup 2026 is headed to North America next year, and for the first time in the global soccer tournament’s nearly 100-year run, the final match will host a musical performance at halftime. Interestingly enough, Drake’s name is being tossed around as the front-runner to headline the inaugural show at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on July 19, 2026. Even FIFA President Gianni Infantino is completely down to entertain the idea.
On Thursday (March 6), Infantino sat down with FOX 5 New York to discuss all things surrounding the World Cup coming stateside in 2026. When the topic of the newly announced halftime show at the final match came up, interviewer Rosanna Scotto immediately suggested that the performer be Drake and the FIFA President was all about it. He specifically liked the idea that a potential performance from Drizzy would rival Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 Super Bowl halftime show, during which Drake was dissed multiple times for the entire audience to see.
“So, we can create a bit of a rivalry,” Gianni Infantino replies after Drake was suggested. “That’s a great idea. Actually, Drake was with us when we announced the host cities. I should have his number still somewhere.”
While Drake hasn’t commented on the FIFA President’s consideration just yet, it would appear that he’d certainly kick around the idea himself. In a conversation with Gianni Infantino just last month, Drizzy made it clear that he is a fan of the World Cup and is excited that the tournament’s first game will take place in his home city of Toronto in June of next year.
“Canada as a whole, we have just such an incredible melting pot of people,” Drizzy told Infantino. “But in Toronto, especially there are just so many different cultural experiences. So, when the World Cup hits, it’s beautiful. It’s a beautiful time. Obviously, there’s passion in many things, but the passion in the World Cup I think is unmatched.”
As Drake and the FIFA President do appear to be on a very friendly basis, one high-profile Drake supporter appears to believe Drizzy’s World Cup Final halftime performance is already a lock. While arguing strongly on Drake’s behalf during a debate over the battle with Kendrick Lamar last November, Mal of the Rory & Mal podcast said with confidence that Drake had already landed the World Cup gig during an interview on Rashad Bilal and Ian Dunlap’s show, Black Out.
“Drake is doing the World Cup,” Mal declared as a rebuttal to Bilal’s take that Kendrick is the rap game’s top dog because of his Super Bowl performance. “It’s not the same. You know how many people watch the World Cup? I think they tallied like 1.6 billion last time.”
Despite Mal’s declaration, DJ Akademiks, an often equally staunch Drake supporter, was quick to refute the podcaster’s seemingly confident inside news just a few days later.
“Where are we getting that Drake is performing here?” Ak said about the World Cup Final in direct response to Mal. “Again, I’m a Drake fan but we gotta just stay with a little bit of facts. It doesn’t even mention a performer. Drake is an ambassador for Canada as a host city.”
Even without confirmation, Drake’s potential halftime performance at the World Cup Final could find Drizzy perhaps getting one leg up on his seemingly perpetual foe, Kendrick Lamar. While K-Dot dissed Drake in front of a record-breaking overall viewing audience of 133.5 million people at this Super Bowl halftime show, the final match of the 2022 World Cup tournament raked in the eyeballs of a staggering 1.42 billion live viewers globally. If the 2026 final can match that with Drake as the halftime performer, it will equal more than 10 times the amount of viewers Kendrick had.
As the entire world awaits an official announcement from the FIFA organization, hip-hop culture is certainly paying close attention to whether or not the first-ever World Cup Final halftime show will serve as just another pawn in the never-ending chess match that is Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar.
