Creative Direction
Pepsi x UEFA Champions League Final: Kick Off Shows
A fusion of football, culture and global music.
Black Skull has been Creative Director across two of Pepsi’s UEFA Champions League Final Kick Off Show, helping shape music performances for one of the world’s most-watched sporting events.
The challenge is always to make music and football feel inseparable. The performance has to belong to the final, the stadium, the culture of the host city, the broadcast and the emotional momentum of the night.
In Kyiv, Dua Lipa’s 2018 performance helped establish a new benchmark for the Kick Off Show format, bringing pop performance into the heart of the Champions League Final atmosphere.
In Istanbul, the 2023 show united Burna Boy, Anitta and Alesso for a stadium-scale performance designed around global audience reach, football culture and the shared emotional language of the final.
For the 2023 ceremony, Black Skull’s creative approach centred on the idea of Fusion: the belief that football and entertainment, when brought together with intention, create something greater than either alone. Every element of the show, from the artists to the staging and visual identity, was built around three interlocking themes: Duality and Fusion — reflecting both the character of Istanbul and the unique energy of global artists sharing one stage.
Black Skull has been Creative Director across two of Pepsi’s UEFA Champions League Final Kick Off Show, helping shape music performances for one of the world’s most-watched sporting events.
The challenge is always to make music and football feel inseparable. The performance has to belong to the final, the stadium, the culture of the host city, the broadcast and the emotional momentum of the night.
In Kyiv, Dua Lipa’s 2018 performance helped establish a new benchmark for the Kick Off Show format, bringing pop performance into the heart of the Champions League Final atmosphere.
In Istanbul, the 2023 show united Burna Boy, Anitta and Alesso for a stadium-scale performance designed around global audience reach, football culture and the shared emotional language of the final.
For the 2023 ceremony, Black Skull’s creative approach centred on the idea of Fusion: the belief that football and entertainment, when brought together with intention, create something greater than either alone. Every element of the show, from the artists to the staging and visual identity, was built around three interlocking themes: Duality and Fusion — reflecting both the character of Istanbul and the unique energy of global artists sharing one stage.
Burna Boy, Anitta and Alesso
Global superstars Burna Boy, Anitta and Alesso brought the UEFA Champions League season to a spectacular close, uniting Afrobeats, Brazilian funk and electrifying dance music on football's biggest stage. As fireworks lit up the stadium, the trio delivered a genre-blending finale worthy of Europe's greatest competition.
"The UEFA Champions League Final Kick Off Show by Pepsi® transcended traditional event participation, offering fans an immersive experience in Istanbul. It not only redefined consumer engagement but also set a new standard for seamlessly integrating entertainment into the fabric of a globally celebrated sports event."
Dua Lipa
For the 2018 UEFA Champions League Final opening ceremony in Kyiv, we led creative direction for Dua Lipa's electrifying pre-match performance, watched by hundreds of millions worldwide. From staging to visual identity, every element was crafted to match the scale and spectacle of European football's showpiece event.
Lil Uzi Vert
