Jung Kook's Two World Cup Stages: 'Dreamers' in 2022, All Seven in 2026

Jung Kook has stood on a World Cup stage twice. At the opening ceremony at Al Bayt Stadium in Qatar in November 2022 he was alone; at the halftime show of the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey in July 2026 he was there with the other six members of BTS.

The line drawn between the two stages is not this site’s. Financial News wrote that after the opening-ceremony performance the group took the final’s stage as a full group, and The Korea Herald wrote that the appearance was a return to the tournament after four years. What follows sets the two stages side by side with their dates, their songs and their records.

20 November 2022: alone at the opening ceremony

Hankook Ilbo reported that Jung Kook performed the tournament’s official theme ‘Dreamers’ at the 2022 Qatar World Cup opening ceremony. At Al Bayt Stadium on 20 November local time he came out in black and performed in front of 60,000 spectators, and the Qatari singer Fahad Al Kubaisi joined him partway through.

The Kyunghyang Shinmun, citing Big Hit Music, reported ahead of the ceremony that the stage would run from 5.40 p.m. to 6.10 p.m. local time, which was 11.40 p.m. to 12.10 a.m. in Korea. The same article reported that, according to FIFA, six or seven acts from around the world took part in the ceremony, Jung Kook among them.

The first World Cup theme song sung by a Korean singer

Hankook Ilbo wrote that it was the first time a Korean singer had performed a World Cup official theme song. ‘Dreamers’ is a song about hope, carrying a message about reaching for a dream.

The same article recorded how the song did on the charts. ‘Dreamers’ reached number one in 102 countries on iTunes within 13 hours of release, and on the US iTunes chart it reached number one in two hours and 11 minutes — the fastest of any FIFA World Cup soundtrack.

The day before, at the national team’s training ground

The Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that Jung Kook visited the South Korean national football team’s training ground the day before the performance to encourage the players. In a video message he said he hoped the players would not get hurt and that they would find the strength to get the result they wanted.

It was the day before he took the opening-ceremony stage: the singer performing the tournament’s official theme went to his own country’s training ground first.

19 July 2026: all seven of them

Four years later BTS took the final’s halftime stage together. The Korea Herald wrote that at the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on 19 July 2026 this was the tournament’s inaugural halftime performance at a final.

Star News reported that Jung Kook and V opened the performance and that Suga, RM, j-hope, Jin and Jimin came out in turn. Financial News wrote that the seven of them, in matching red and black, performed ‘Dynamite’, released in 2020, and that after the opening ceremony Jung Kook had played alone, the group this time took the stage as a full group.

Key takeaways

• Jung Kook performed the official theme ‘Dreamers’ at the opening ceremony at Al Bayt Stadium in Qatar on 20 November 2022, and Hankook Ilbo wrote that it was the first time a Korean singer had performed a World Cup official theme song.
• ‘Dreamers’ reached number one in 102 countries on iTunes within 13 hours of release, and on the US iTunes chart it took two hours and 11 minutes — the fastest of any World Cup soundtrack.
• The day before the stage, Jung Kook visited the South Korean national football team’s training ground and sent the players a video message of encouragement.
• Four years later, on 19 July 2026, all seven members of BTS were on the final’s halftime stage, with Jung Kook and V opening the performance.