Culture

World Cup Opening Ceremony Featured Pitbull, J-Lo, and Plenty of Weirdness

With Pitbull and J-Lo as headliners, the World Cup's opening presentation had all the star-power, fun, and particular weirdness of a major event. Oh, and the required children dressed as soccer robots.

By Eric Levenson
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This article is from the archive of our partner .

With Pitbull and J-Lo as headliners, the World Cup's opening presentation had all the star-power, fun, and particular weirdness you only seem to find at big global sporting events. Oh, and children dressed as soccer robots, of course.

Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez, and Brazilian singer Claudia Leitte capped off the show with a performance of their official World Cup song, "We Are One."

A giant colorful ball in the middle of the field opened up, and the three singers appeared with mics in hand.
 

"Throw your hands up in the sky," the song's chorus goes, and they absolutely did. Leitte and J-Lo rocked their respective bedazzled onesies, and Pitbull was splashing in his all-white capris.

But despite that performance, the real stars of the show were the strangely-dressed people surrounding the singers down on the field. There were the robot-like soccer ball costumes, hexagon-helmet included.

Here's a closer look:

And there were the shiny, peace-loving, green and yellow drummers who lent a parade-like atmosphere to the proceedings.

This weird tree person showed up, too.

The program then wrapped up with the crowd chanting curse words at the President of Brazil, so the Cup is off to a flying start.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.