Prior to the first kick-off, the World Cup opening ceremony will take place on Sunday, November 20th , featuring songs, dance routines, and other bits of pageantry designed to get everyone excited for what is about to come. It’ll be followed immediately by the first scheduled game which features host nation Qatar taking on Ecuador.
Let’s take a closer look at who will – and who won’t – be performing at this year’s kick off event and how you can watch it live on FS1 and Telemundo.
In a hurry? You can watch with these streaming services:
- Fubo: The best streaming service for international sports also provides 150+ well-selected channels. Fubo allows you to try out its service with a free trial.
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- Sling TV: This low-cost service allows you to select just the channel lineup you want. Save 50% on Sling TV now.
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Table Of Contents
Where & When To Watch World Cup Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony will be broadcast in English on Fox Sports 1 (FS1) on November 20th starting at (EST). The ceremony will also be broadcast in Spanish on Telemundo starting at .
It takes place at the 60,000 capaciyt Al-Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, a coastal city roughly 40 minutes North of Doha by car.
Who’s Performing at the Opening Ceremony?
A number of internationally recognized pop stars are expected to be performing at this event, including:-
- Robbie Williams
- Lil Baby of “The World is Yours to Take” fame
- Jungkook from South Korean K-pop sensation BTS
- Nora Fatehi, responsible for “Light The Sky”, the official song of FIFA World Cup 2022
Other big names like Black Eyed Peas and J Balvin are performing at events elsewhere in Doha, Qatar today, too. Although Shakira, Dua Lipa and Rod Stewart were some of the names originally mentioned as possible performers at the event, each have since announced that they would not be participating.
Beyond that, both FIFA and the Qatar Football Association have been tight lipped. However, at the 20178 Fifa World Cup Russia, president Vladimir Putin made a speech, so we’d wager that the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, may well make some short remarks as part of this year’s opening ceremony.
The event takes place immediately prior to the opening match between Ecuador and Qatar, which starts at (EST) and is being broadcast on FS1 (English) and Telemundo (Spanish).
How to Watch the World Cup 2022 Opening Ceremony
With the World cup Qatar 2022 being broadcast by two heavyweights (Fox and NBCUniversal), it is relatively easy to watch the whole tournament, including the World Cup Opening Ceremony:
- Fubo (formerly FuboTV): The best choice for soccer fans, it offers over 150 channels including all that cover the World Cup for $79.99/mo. (Fubo review and World Cup guide/Viewer’s Guide)
- Sling TV: Get Fox and FS1 for only $40.00/mo. (Sling TV review/Viewer’s Guide)
- DIRECTV STREAM: Get all the World Cup channels for $79.99/mo. (DIRECTV STREAM review/Viewer’s Guide)
- Hulu + Live TV: For $76.99/mo, you get all the channels except Universo, which is available with a low-cost add-on. (Hulu + Live TV review/Hulu Live Viewer’s Guide)
- YouTube TV: For $72.99/mo, get over 100 live channels.
- Peacock: Provides complete Spanish-language coverage for just $7.99/mo. (Peacock review) (deal details)
Where To Watch In the Rest of the World
A VPN can be helpful in getting the content you deserve. Here are the providers of the World Cup in major English-speaking countries:
- Australia: Special Broadcasting Service (SBS)
- Canada: Bell Media (CTV)
- Ireland: RTÉ Television (RTÉ2)
- New Zealand: Sky New Zealand (Sky Sports)
- United Kingdom: BBC1 (+ BBC iPlayer for a live stream), ITV
Devices to Watch World Cup Qatar 2022 Opening Ceremony
The streaming services above allow you to live stream on most currently-used devices:
- Amazon Fire TV (Firestick)
- Android Mobile
- Apple TV
- Chromecast
- iOS (iPhone, iPad)
- Roku
- Web browsers
Most of those can connect to your smart TV. But most of the services allow you to stream directly to smart TVs like LG, Samsung, and Vizio. A smaller number of them allow you to stream ongaming units from Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox.
Wrapping Up
The World Cup is the most popular sports events in the world, and some sources estimate that up to five billion people will watch at least some of the tournament. Even in countries like the United States where soccer isn’t the most popular sport, it won’t be surprising for games to draw audiences in the millions, so the opening ceremony may also draws millions of viewers eager for play to begin.
We recommend FuboTV and Sling TV to stream the World Cup Opening Ceremony.
FAQs
Who is opening for the World Cup 2022?
Robbie Williams, Lil Baby, Jungkook from South Korean K-pop sensation BTS and Canadian actress Nora Fatehi, but sadly not Shakira, Dua Lipa or Rod Stewart.
How long does the opening ceremony for the World Cup 2022 last?
The opening ceremony will be a brief 30 minutes, and the World Cup 2022 itself will last 29 days, shorter than usual.
What songs will be played at the opening ceremony for the World Cup?
We can’t know for sure, but we’d expect to hear Lil Baby perform “The World is Yours to Take” fame, “Budweiser Anthem” of the FIFA World Cup 2022, and Nora Fatehito perform the official song, “Light The Sky”.
Why is the World Cup 2022 opening ceremony on a Sunday?
The opening ceremony was originally scheduled to take place on Monday November 21, 2022. However, because of the condensed schedule of this year’s World Cup, that would have meant that it took place after games had already been played. Therefore, the event was moved to Sunday so that it could be held prior to the host nation’s first match.
What is the World Cup match schedule?
The first “Group A” match between host country Qatar and Ecuador begins right after the opening ceremony. It is the only game on Sunday November 20th, 2022. After it, there are normally 4 matches per day for the Group Stage.
There are then two matches per day for the Group of 16. Then a two-day break and two matches per day for the quarter-finals (December 9-10), one per day for the semi-finals (December 13-14), and the finals on December 17-18.
Here is the schedule:
- Sun Nov 20 : Opening Ceremony
- Sun Nov 20 : Qatar vs Ecuador (FS1)
- Mon Nov 21 : England vs Iran (FS1)
- Mon Nov 21 : Senegal vs Netherlands (Fox)
- Mon Nov 21 : USA vs Wales (Fox)
- Tue Nov 22 : Argentina vs Saudi Arabia (FS1)
- Tue Nov 22 : Denmark vs Tunisia (FS1)
- Tue Nov 22 : Mexico vs Poland (Fox)
- Tue Nov 22 : France vs Australia (Fox)
- Wed Nov 23 : Morocco vs Croatia (FS1)
- Wed Nov 23 : Germany vs Japan (FS1)
- Wed Nov 23 : Spain vs Costa Rica (Fox)
- Wed Nov 23 : Belgium vs Canada (Fox)
- Thu Nov 24 : Switzerland vs Cameroon (FS1)
- Thu Nov 24 : Uruguay vs South Korea (FS1)
- Thu Nov 24 : Portugal vs Ghana (Fox)
- Thu Nov 24 : Brazil vs Serbia (Fox)
- Fri Nov 25 : Wales vs Iran (FS1)
- Fri Nov 25 : Qatar vs Senegal (FS1)
- Fri Nov 25 : The Netherlands vs Ecuador (Fox)
- Fri Nov 25 : England vs USA (Fox)
- Sat Nov 26 : Tunisia vs Australia (FS1)
- Sat Nov 26 : Poland vs Saudi Arabia (FS1)
- Sat Nov 26 : France vs Denmark (FS1)
- Sat Nov 26 : Argentina vs Mexico (FS1)
- Sun Nov 27 : Japan vs Costa Rica (FS1)
- Sun Nov 27 : Belgium vs Morocco (FS1)
- Sun Nov 27 : Croatia vs Canada (FS1)
- Sun Nov 27 : Spain vs Germany (FS1)
- Mon Nov 28 : Cameroon vs Serbia (FS1)
- Mon Nov 28 : South Korea vs Ghana (FS1)
- Mon Nov 28 : Brazil vs Switzerland (Fox)
- Mon Nov 28 : Portugal vs Uruguay (Fox)
- Tue Nov 29 : The Netherlands vs Qatar (Fox)
- Tue Nov 29 : Ecuador vs Senegal (FS1)
- Tue Nov 29 : Wales vs England (FS1)
- Tue Nov 29 : Iran vs USA (Fox)
- Wed Nov 30 : Tunisia vs France (Fox)
- Wed Nov 30 : Australia vs Denmark (FS1)
- Wed Nov 30 : Saudi Arabia vs Mexico (FS1)
- Wed Nov 30 : Poland vs Argentina (Fox)
- Thu Dec 1 : Croatia vs Belgium (Fox)
- Thu Dec 1 : Canada vs Morocco (FS1)
- Thu Dec 1 : Japan vs Spain (Fox)
- Thu Dec 1 : Costa Rica vs Germany (FS1)
- Fri Dec 2 : South Korea vs Portugal (Fox)
- Fri Dec 2 : Ghana vs Uruguay (FS1)
- Fri Dec 2 : Serbia vs Switzerland (FS1)
- Fri Dec 2 : Cameroon vs Brazil (Fox)
- Sat Dec 3 : Netherlands vs USA (Fox)
- Sat Dec 3 : Argentina vs Australia (Fox)
- Sun Dec 4 : France vs Poland (FS1)
- Sun Dec 4 : England vs Senegal (FS1)
- Mon Dec 5 : Croatia vs Japan (Fox)
- Mon Dec 5 : Brazil vs South Korea (Fox)
- Tue Dec 6 : Morocco vs Spain (Fox)
- Tue Dec 6 : Portugal vs Switzerland (Fox)
- Fri Dec 9 : Brazil vs Croatia (Fox)
- Fri Dec 9 : Netherlands vs Argentina (Fox)
- Sat Dec 10 : Morocco vs Portugal (Fox)
- Sat Dec 10 : England vs France (Fox)
- Tue Dec 13 : Argentina vs Croatia (Fox)
- Wed Dec 14 : Morocco vs France (Fox)
- Sat Dec 17 : Croatia vs Morocco (Fox)
- Sun Dec 18 : Argentina vs France (Fox)
FIFA World Cup opening ceremony, 2018 by GPA Photo Archive under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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