FIFA World Cup Opening Ceremony HIGHLIGHTS: BTS star Jungkook, Morgan Freeman take the spotlight at Qatar 2022 WC event

Follow for all HIGHLIGHTS from the opening ceremony of the Qatar World Cup.

Jung Kook of BTS performs during the opening ceremony. | Photo Credit: ELSA

Follow for all HIGHLIGHTS from the opening ceremony of the Qatar World Cup.

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A football story and Protocol speech

His Highness The Amit, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani gives the opening speech for the World Cup.

His speech is followed by a lights and firework display with flags, mascots and jerseys of all the participating countries on display.

Jungkook on the stage

BTS star Jungkook renders his ‘Dreamers’ surrounded by white-clad dancers. The song highlights the optimism that every World Cup brings on every four years and will surely make the tournament an exciting affair, both on and off the field.

“Look who we are, we are the dreamers, we’ll make it happen ’cause we believe it, look who we are, we are the dreamers, we’ll make it happen ’cause we can see it,” is how the song begins

Third Act - World Cup Medley

A medley of iconic World Cup songs rings out as all the mascots from the previous World Cups march out to the middle. Along with that, a large inflated version of edition’s mascot - La’eeb -

Second Act - Chant of Nations

Narrated by Morgan Freeman, this performance will celebrate all the participating nations of this World Cup. LED stick performers set the stage alight before volunteers came in with giant flags of all 32-participating teams.

The First Act of Opening Ceremony

Leta’arafo (To know one another) - In the opening act, Morgan Freeman dons the role of narrator and will tell the story of Human unison along with Ghanim Al Muftaha and Dana. They will be accompanied by Qatari women, voyagers, camels and camel handlers.

THE BTS BUZZ

The opening ceremony of the World Cup will take place on November 20, ahead of the opening Group A match between host Qatar and Ecuador.

The opening ceremony is scheduled to begin at 8:10 pm IST.

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The original plan was for the opening ceremony to be held before Qatar’s first game on November 21, which would have created the unusual situation of two games being held before it. The opening match was then brought forward by a day.

Is BTS star Jungkook performing at the opening ceremony?

Yes. While FIFA is yet to announce a complete list of performers for the 2022 World Cup opening ceremony, Jungkook, a member of the globally popular Korean boy band BTS, has confirmed his presence at the event. BTS has confirmed Jungkook will perform the official soundtrack of this edition of the world cup, Dreamers, at the opening ceremony.

The 25-year-old released the track for FIFA World Cup 2022 titled Dreamers on the opening day of the Qatar WC.

The song highlights the optimism that every World Cup brings on every four years and will surely make the tournament an exciting affair, both on and off the field.

“Look who we are, we are the dreamers, we’ll make it happen ’cause we believe it, look who we are, we are the dreamers, we’ll make it happen ’cause we can see it,” is how the song begins, with BTS’ host country, South Korea, also looking to realise its dream of making it past the group stage for the first time since 2010.

World Cups have been marked with landmark tracks such as the Wavin Flag and Waka Waka in 2010 to the Cup of Life in 1998 and this track will be another addition to the collection.

Listed the full track here.

Who is Jungkook?

Often known as the ‘Golden Maknae’ aka the youngest member of BTS, Jungkook was born in Busan, South Korea, on September 1, 1997.

Jungkook’s latest collaboration with Charlie Puth was on the single, ‘Left and Right,’ which was released on June 24.

The last time BTS, a seven-member group, performed live together was at the World Expo 2030 Busan Korea Concert.

BTS is currently on a hiatus, with its eldest member Kim Seok-jin set to join mandatory military service in December.

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Is Jungkook the first K-pop idol to perform at the opening/closing ceremony of major sporting event?

No, Jungkook is not the first K-pop idol to perform at the opening/closing ceremony of a major sporting event. South Korean K-pop group EXO and soloist CL performed at the closing ceremony of Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.

Why is Jungkook’s performance generating a buzz? What is BTS ARMY?

BTS’ social media following speaks for itself, with 69 million Instagram followers and 42.1 million on Twitter, apart from numerous fan pages. Jungkook’s has 47.9 million followers on Instagram. BTS fans are called ARMY and Jungkook has tattoos of the fandom name and logo. With the confirmation of his performance at the opening ceremony, the ARMY members coined the term “FIFAKOOK” on social media.

When and where to watch FIFA World Cup opening ceremony performance?

The FIFA World Cup 2022 opening ceremony will take place on November 20 at 8:10 PM IST.

The opening ceremony of the FIFA World up 2022 will be available on the following channels across the world:

• India: Sports18, Sports18 HD and Jio Cinema
• UK: BBC One
• USA: FOX, Telemundo, fuboTV
• Canada: CTV, TSN, RDS
• Australia: SBS