“I’ve done a lot in my career, and opening the FIFA World Cup to 80,000 football fans in the stadium and many millions all over the world is a boyhood dream," says Robbie Williams.
Celebrated Russian soprano Aida Garifullina will join Robbie for a special, one-off duet during his performance.
“I’m so happy and excited to be going back to Russia for such a unique performance. I’ve done a lot in my career, and opening the FIFA World Cup to 80,000 football fans in the stadium and many millions all over the world is a boyhood dream," Robbie adds.
"We’d like to invite football and music fans to party with us in Russia, in the stadium, or to tune in their TVs a little earlier for an unforgettable show.”

Very excited to be returning to Russia to perform at the opening of the @FIFAWorldCup - tune in early on Thursday for an unforgettable show! #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/skwCwt21SM

— Robbie Williams (@robbiewilliams) 11 de junio de 2018

Ronaldo (two-time winner of the FIFA World Cup with Brazil) will also appear at the opening ceremony.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony will have a slightly different format compared to previous editions of the tournament.
This time, the ceremony will focus on musical acts and will take place much closer to kick-off, just half an hour before the start of the match, which is scheduled for 18pm (local time).
Earlier this week Robbie once again lead out the England team in the annual Soccer Aid for UNICEF match.
The charity fundraising football event was co-founded by Robbie in 2006 and before last night’s match had raised over £24 million for children in danger around the world.
Whilst donations from this week's fundraiser are still coming in, yesterday’s total was a record for the largest amount raised on the night since the project began.

.@robbiewilliams hands the captains armband over to #SoccerAid favourite @ollymurs. Olly has done a lot of great work for @unicef_uk ??‘?#SoccerAid #Unicef pic.twitter.com/wchz5srIru

— Soccer Aid ⚽️ (@socceraid) 10 de junio de 2018

Robbie has just announced a string of South American live dates as part of The Heavy Entertainment Show Tour [more details at robbiewilliams.com].
Robbie released the platinum-selling album of the same name in November 2016, which includes the singles ‘Party Like a Russian’ and ‘Love My Life’. It debuted at Number 1 on the UK album chart.