Tems Will Headline The First-Ever FIFA Club World Cup Halftime Show

The Nigerian superstar and her team are not new to the world of sports. Tems recently became a part-owner of San Diego FC, making history as the first African woman to hold ownership stakes in a Major League Soccer (MLS) club. She will headline the FIFA Club World Cup final at MetLife Stadium on July 19, performing alongside Puerto Rican star J Balvin and American act Doja Cat. The trio was selected for this highly anticipated event by Chris Martin of Coldplay.

As Afrobeats continues to scale internationally, collaboration between the music and sports industries is inevitable. As entertainment is a shared interest, artists like Tems have been intentional in positioning their brands to attract a wide range of partners. The Club World Cup has a peculiar appeal, being hosted in the United States, a country that, despite its recent political upheavals, has typically enjoyed a large demographic of Africans in the diaspora.

Tems’ inclusion on the Club World Cup stage not only represents Africa’s contributions to the beautiful game; it nods to the rich history of African American music, from Soul to R&B and hip-hop, that has been a notable influence behind her unique sound.

Further entrenching the halftime show in more noble ambitions, FIFA is partnering with Global Citizen, an organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty and providing children with access to education and football infrastructure. Consequently, the FIFA Global Citizen Fund aims to raise $100 million towards the achievement of these goals.

Through this potentially world-changing connection between football and music, not only are those goals possible, but both of these scenes are going to open up more favorably for their practitioners. Already, we’ve seen Afrobeats acts like Ayra Starr and Rema perform at a New Balance launch and the Ballon D’Or ceremony, proving that African stars, with all their swag and sonic brilliance, are going to be instrumental as the world consistently evolves into one big field of collaboration.

Given Tems’ expertise with live performances, the world will surely be in for a show on that MetLife stage.