The Cure’s Robert Smith has shared his thoughts on the upcoming FIFA World Cup final halftime show curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin.
The first ever official World Cup final halftime show will take place at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday (July 19), and is set to feature Madonna, Justin Bieber, Shakira and BTS, with Martin curating the performance.
Earlier today (July 16), Smith shared a typically blunt response to the spectacle on The Cure’s official Instagram page, taking aim in particular at FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
“The half-time show, which has been curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, will feature Madonna, Justin Bieber, Shakira and the K-pop boyband BTS,” the caption read. “Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantosser, has described the half-time show as ‘groundbreaking spectacle’ that will ‘celebrate football, music and our shared values, ensuring a legacy that transcends the final whistle’.”
The caption concluded: “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH… #Breadandcircuses #MUGWANK #pleasejustfuckoff.”
Check out the post here:
The post also included a photograph that appears to be NASA’s famous ‘Pale Blue Dot’ photograph, taken by Voyager 1 in 1990 from around 3.7billion miles away. The image shows Earth as a tiny speck in space, and has long been used as a reminder of humanity’s small place in the universe.
The halftime show will be the first of its kind at a World Cup final, following the model of the Super Bowl. FIFA has said the show will support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which is aiming to raise money to help expand access to education and football for children around the world.
The withering nature of the post recalls Smith’s famously dry response at the 2019 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony, when an interviewer asked The Cure whether they were “as excited as I am” to be inducted.
“By the sounds of it, no,” Smith replied, in a clip that later went viral.
Speaking about the moment in 2024 on Annie MacManus and Nick Grimshaw’s Sidetracked podcast, Smith said he had “felt bad” about the exchange.
“If I’m honest, I didn’t realise that I was being filmed,” he said. “We had just come from quite a serious conversation in our dressing room about what we were doing there. And this wave of enthusiasm was just like…”
The Cure are currently out on tour across the UK and Europe. Earlier this week, they announced that Simon Gallup’s son Eden was filling in for the longtime bassist after he was taken ill shortly before the first of their three shows in Berlin.
The band recently headlined Poland’s Open’er Festival, where they performed a career-spanning set that included the rarely played ‘Wild Mood Swings’ deep cut ‘Treasure’.
Last month, Smith revealed that The Cure have finished a follow-up to 2024’s ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, while another more “poppy” and “upbeat” album is also in the works.
He also recently teamed up with Olivia Rodrigo on ‘What’s Wrong With Me’, and features on The Rolling Stones’ new album ‘Foreign Tongues’, contributing guitar to ‘Divine Intervention’ and synth and backing vocals to ‘Never Wanna Lose You’.
In a five-star review of ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, NME wrote: “Merciless? Yes, but there’s always enough heart in the darkness and opulence in the sound to hold you and place these songs alongside The Cure’s finest.
“The frontman suggested that another two records may be arriving at some point, but ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ feels sufficient enough for the wait we’ve endured, just for being arguably the most personal album of Smith’s career. Mortality may loom, but there’s colour in the black and flowers on the grave.”
