Justin Bieber’s World Cup curveball sends ‘Everything Hallelujah’ streams up
Rolling Stone reports Bieber’s 2025 song jumped 240% on global Spotify after his acoustic World Cup halftime performance.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
2 min read
Justin Bieber’s surprise World Cup song choice has turned into a streaming win.
After Bieber performed “Everything Hallelujah” during the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final halftime show, the 2025 track rose 240% in global streams on Spotify, according to data shared with Rolling Stone.
The bump followed a pared-back turn from Bieber at one of sports’ biggest stages. Rolling Stone reported that Bieber played the song on acoustic guitar Sunday afternoon after Jason Sudeikis introduced him in character as Ted Lasso.
The choice drew attention because “Everything Hallelujah” was not the sort of obvious stadium pick some viewers expected from Bieber. According to Rolling Stone, some fans thought he might perform a newer hit such as “Yukon” or a pop staple like “Baby.”
Search interest also suggests plenty of people were trying to place the song. Rolling Stone reported that “Justin Bieber song hallelujah” and “Justin Bieber hallelujah song” were the top two Google Trends queries under Bieber’s name.
A quiet pick on a very loud stage
“Everything Hallelujah” comes from Bieber’s 2025 project Swag II, according to Rolling Stone. The World Cup performance put the song in front of a global audience that may not have recognized it on first listen.
Reaction online was mixed. Rolling Stone pointed to criticism from viewers on X who felt the acoustic performance was out of step with the scale and energy of a World Cup Final halftime slot.
One X user quoted by Rolling Stone wrote, “Justin Bieber saw people having fun and said let me doing a boring song and ruin the vibe for everyone.”
Even so, the streaming data reported by Rolling Stone shows the performance sent listeners searching, saving or at least sampling. The spike does not show whether audiences loved the song, only that the World Cup moment drove a sharp rise in global Spotify plays.
Another post-stage streaming lift
The World Cup boost is not Bieber’s first major streaming lift of 2026. Rolling Stone reported that he also saw a surge after headlining Coachella earlier this year.
According to Rolling Stone, Bieber had his biggest Spotify streaming day of the year at that point on April 12, with 24.6 million streams after the Coachella performance.
The outlet also reported that nearly a month after the festival, Bieber was still benefiting from the attention, reaching 140 million Spotify listeners over a period of a few weeks.
For “Everything Hallelujah,” the halftime slot appears to have done exactly what a global TV moment can do: turn confusion, curiosity and criticism into plays.
This story draws on original reporting from Rolling Stone.