Lisa from Blackpink is set to perform live at the Los Angeles opening ceremony for the FIFA World Cup 2026 on June 12, one of three inaugural shows staged across the tournament’s host nations.
The three opening ceremonies are a new wrinkle for the tournament and are expected to draw more than 200,000 spectators in stadiums with hundreds of millions more watching worldwide. The 2026 World Cup will run from Thursday, June 11, until the final on Sunday, July 19, in New York and will feature a record 104 matches across 16 host cities.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino framed the event as a bridging moment for sport and culture, saying the competition embodies "football connecting people beyond borders." The Los Angeles show joins a Mexico City production and a Toronto performance that together mark the first time opening ceremonies are staged across three host nations.
Organizers have given Mexico and Canada clear themes and lineups. The Mexico City Stadium presentation will last 16 minutes and 30 seconds, will highlight the traditional Mexican paper-cutting art of papel picado and will feature Shakira and Burna Boy performing the song "Dai Dai," alongside J Balvin, Alejandro Fernández, Belinda, Danny Ocean, Maná and Tyla. The Canada opening ceremony at Toronto Stadium will run 13 minutes under the theme "Cultural Mosaic," with a lineup that includes Alanis Morissette, Michael Bublé, Alessia Cara, Jessie Reyez, Elyanna, Nora Fatehi and William Prince.
By contrast, FIFA’s announcement names Lisa among the Los Angeles headliners but does not specify what she will perform. That gap is the clearest unresolved point about the Los Angeles show: organizers announced the performer, the city and the date, yet offered no public explanation for why Lisa was chosen for the Los Angeles ceremony specifically and provided no setlist or performance detail.
The mechanics fans and viewers should note are concrete. Each opening ceremony will begin 90 minutes before the host nation’s opening match, meaning the Los Angeles show will precede the United States’ opening game by an hour and a half. The tournament schedule places the opening window across June 11–12 and then moves through July until the final in New York on July 19.
For Los Angeles and global audiences, the practical questions are simple: when to tune in and what to expect. Broadcast and stadium timing will center on the 90‑minute pre-match window; the Mexico and Canada shows already have run times and themes, leaving Lisa’s set in Los Angeles as the chief unknown. FIFA has identified Lisa as the first Thai artiste among the announced headliners, a notable marker in a lineup that blends established global stars and regional representation.
The next, most consequential development to watch is the reveal of Lisa’s performance — the song or sequence she will deliver, the staging and whether the set will be linked to national themes or to the broader spectacle FIFA is mounting across three venues. With more than 200,000 fans expected inside stadiums and hundreds of millions watching, that announcement will shape how the Los Angeles ceremony is received and how the multiple-opening‑ceremony experiment reads on the tournament’s opening weekend.
