WORLD CUP 2022. The closing ceremony of the FIFA World Cup 2022 will take place this Sunday, December 18, in Qatar.
[Mis à jour le 13 décembre 2022 à 17h57] Which artists will perform at the closing ceremony of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar? A few days before the end of the festivities, which will therefore be held this Sunday, December 18 after the final match of the competition, the question still arises. At the time of writing these lines, only very few details have been made official by FIFA for what will be the closing ceremony of this World Cup.
Only official information: the Franco-Congolese rapper Gims will sing in Doha this Sunday. A presence that had aroused many criticisms, as this World Cup in Qatar is controversial, pushing the artist to justify himself. “This deal, FIFA offered it to me a little over two years ago. We are in a somewhat special setting, it is confinement. We are deprived of freedom (…). We are talking about the Cup du Monde, we are talking about singing in front of billions of viewers. It cannot be refused. I am a singer, “he explained on France Inter on December 1 on Sonia Devillers’ show.
In addition to performing at the closing ceremony of the world, Gims signed one of the two anthems of the event: the song Arbo, in duet with Puerto Rican star Ozuna. Will the two artists perform together on Sunday December 18? Like the rest of the artists expected in Doha, the mystery remains.
The opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup
Morgan Freeman and BTS (or almost): the opening ceremony of the World Cup in Qatar was far from the rain of artists announced before the event. Sunday, November 20, at the Al-Bayt stadium in Al-Khor, located north of Doha, opened this controversial world. On stage, spectators and viewers were able to applaud American actor Morgan Freeman, who came with a message of “respect and inclusion.” On the music side, neither Shakira nor Dua Lipa, as rumors had it, but simply a member of the South Korean K-Pop phenomenon group, Jungkook, who covered the hit. Dreamersalongside Qatari artist Fahad Al-Kubaisi.
Before the start of the World Cup, the Gulf State had announced a (long) list of artists, to perform throughout the competition. Also, Robbie Williams (already present at the opening ceremony of the world in Russia in 2018), should give a concert at the Doha Golf Club, in Qatar, on December 8. Among the other heavyweights of the international music industry to have said yes (according to the organizers of the world): the Black Eyed Peas, David Guetta, Maroon 5, J Balvin, Post Malone and Enrique Iglesias. So many guests at the service of an “unforgettable festival combining football and entertainment”, as announced by Nasser Al Khater, the General Manager of the 2022 World Cup one month before its kick-off.
The World Cup concert program
Despite the polemics and controversies around this World Cup in Qatar, several French and international artists had accepted the invitation to perform from the Gulf State during what they called the “FIFA Fan Festival”. Here is the program that was announced on the official website of the 2022 World Cup:
- Monday, November 21: Blue
- Tuesday, November 22: Diplo
- Wednesday, November 23: Kizz Daniel
- Thursday, November 24: Zeynep Bastik
- Friday, November 25: Tamtam & Felukah
- Saturday, November 26: Bader AlZhuaibi
- Sunday November 27: DJ Khaled Mamdouh
- Monday, November 28: Patoranking
- Tuesday, November 29: Nora Fatehi
- Wednesday, November 30: Omar Montes
- Thursday, December 1: Trinidad Cardona
- Friday, December 2: DJ Aseel
- Saturday, December 3: Gims
- Sunday, December 4: DJ Topic
- Monday, December 5: Tokio Myers
- Tuesday, December 6: Miami Band
- Wednesday, December 7: 4Love
- Thursday December 8: Julian Marley and the Uprising
- Friday, December 9: Myrath
- Saturday, December 10: Calvin Harris
- Sunday December 11: Retro Night
- Monday, December 12: Hassan Shakosh
- Tuesday December 13 and Wednesday December 14: DJ Cosmicat
- Thursday, December 15: Paul van Dyk
- Friday, December 16: Clean Bandit
- Saturday, December 17: Sean Paul
Dua Lipa, Rod Stewart… The artists who said no to Qatar
The weeks preceding the start of the World Cup, many rumors announced the arrival in Qatar of several artists, in particular Shakira or Dua Lipa. But on social networks, the British singer strongly denied, explaining that she “can’t wait to go to Qatar when he has fulfilled all the human rights commitments he has made.”
For his part, Rod Stewart, legendary singer of English rock, had declared to the Sunday Times: “I was offered a lot of money, more than a million dollars, to play there (in Qatar) there is 15 months. I turned it down. It’s not good to go.” Same story for Shakira, who had pinned the World Cup and its host country on its carbon footprint. “I don’t think anyone has the luxury of saying, ‘Oh no, I’m not going to take part in this cause,'” the singer told Gala UK magazine of the ecology.