The World Cup is back. The quadrennial sporting event is set to kick off in Doha next week with a dazzling performance by BTS’s Jung Kook, who will be hitting the stage at the Al-Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, during the football tournament’s opening ceremony in Qatar on Nov. 20.
“Proud to announce that Jung Kook is part of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Soundtrack & will perform at the World Cup opening ceremony. Stay tuned! (sic)” BTS wrote over the weekend.
The news comes just one month after it was announced that the K-Pop group will be going on hiatus as they will enlist in South Korea’s military as required by law. They will reconvene as a band in 2025, after completing their mandatory service, their label revealed on Twitter last month.
Jung Kook has a very successful solo career, releasing several songs in recent years independently from the seven-person group. Following the release of BTS’ anthology album, Proof, in June, the singer dropped the solo track My You, which was a touching love letter to the group’s die-hard fans, or army, as they’re affectionally called.
Bollywood superstar Nora Fatehi and Colombian singer Shakira are also expected to be among the performers during the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony, though neither artists have confirmed the news. Meanwhile, British-Albanian hitmaker Dua Lipa recently took to her Instagram Stories to shut down rumors that she will be performing in Qatar.
“There is a lot of speculation that I will be performing at the opening ceremony of the World Cup in Qatar. I will not be performing and nor have I ever been involved in any negotiation to perform,” she wrote on Sunday, adding, “I look forward to visiting Qatar when it has fulfilled all the human rights pledges it made when it won the right to host the World Cup.”
