Brandon Flowers and David Beckham drive The Race Begins promo
brandon flowers and David Beckham appear together in The Race Begins, the short film released to introduce The Killers as the headline act for the Kick Off Show ahead of the 2026 UEFA Champions League final in Budapest. The promo turns a football final into a music booking announcement, with the build-up now carrying a clear entertainment hook.
Flowers in the custom car
The short film puts Flowers behind the wheel of a custom car while Beckham rides a motorcycle, sending both figures separately toward the stadium hosting the final. That split-screen race is the whole point of the piece: it sells the pre-match spectacle as a chase, then lands on the booking news without needing a straight promotional announcement.
The film’s title, The Race Begins, does the work of a trailer and a reveal at once. It ties the final’s build-up to the Pepsi-sponsored pre-match spectacle and gives the Kick Off Show a cleaner entertainment identity, with The Killers positioned as the main draw rather than a side note to the match itself.
Beckham and The Killers
Beckham’s role matters because he is not just a cameo; he travels inside the story alongside Flowers, which gives the short film a higher-profile bridge between football and music. As a former England star and co-owner of Inter Miami, he brings sports credibility to a launch that is really about audience reach and event branding.
The Killers’ headline slot is the practical outcome here. The short film exists to announce that booking, and that means the final’s pre-match show now has a named act attached well before Budapest hosts the event. For a live spectacle, that is the part that changes the commercial picture: the performance is no longer generic, and the promotion can sell around a band name people already know.
Budapest build-up
The 2026 UEFA Champions League final gives the campaign its fixed destination, and Budapest is where the promotion is headed. The short film is built for the run-up to that date, so the immediate next step for viewers is not another teaser but the show itself, with the music booking already set and the football final serving as the stage.
For readers tracking the entertainment side of major sports events, the useful takeaway is simple: the final is using a short film to front-load attention on its pre-match concert, and Flowers is the face of that reveal. That is the sort of cross-promotion that can make a live event feel bigger than a 90-minute match.
