This summer’s International Champions Cup (ICC) will feature the first El Clásico meeting between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid on US soil, and the organizers have stepped up to deliver a halftime performance worthy of the occasion. In that spirit, the tournament announced on Wednesday that Marc Anthony will perform during the intermission of the match in Miami on July 29th.
While Anthony has performed at awards shows and sporting events before—he even performed “America the Beautiful” at the pre-game show for Super Bowl 36 in New Orleans—this is shaping up to be his most-watched performance ever. Normal Clásicos average an audience of around 400 million people per telecast, a figure that the Miami Clásico is unlikely to reach. However, if even half of that number tunes in for a historic match such as the first US Clásico, it will easily clinch top Anthony’s other performances in viewership.
The New York-born singer will also become the first artist to perform at an ICC match since the tournament’s inception in 2013. The seven-time Latin Grammy Awards winner is a part-owner of the Miami Dolphins, whose owner, Stephen Ross, is one of the co-founders of the tournament, alongside his sports venture firm, Relevent Sports.
On top of landing Anthony for the halftime show, the ICC managed to organize a Clásico on foreign soil, which is a huge accomplishment on its own; this will be only the second Clásico held outside of Spain, and the first-ever to come to the United States. The last time Barcelona and Real Madrid faced off in a foreign country was in Venezuela in 1982, a game that Real Madrid won by the score of 1-0, thanks to a goal from future World Cup-winning manager Vicente del Bosque. Getting a Latin music legend like Anthony to perform at halftime is the cherry on top of what should be a hectic and crowded weekend in South Florida.
It’s not all roses for the organizers of the tournament, however; in the run-up to the match, fans have complained about the high ticket prices for the Clásico, with the cheapest tickets on resale markets reaching into the $400 range.