Touchdown in Arizona! Rihanna made a triumphant return to live performance with a Super Bowl halftime show that was well worth the wait — and not just because she revealed that she is pregnant with her second child.
It’s been five years since Rihanna’s last live performance, when she dueted with DJ Khaled at the 2018 Grammys on #1 single “Wild Thoughts.” (Rihanna’s fans, who call themselves the “the Navy,” have been waiting seven years for a full album since “Anti” in 2016.)
In fairness, the 34-year-old has been busy. Rihanna had a son last year with rapper A$AP Rocky, while overseeing the growth of two radically inclusive beauty and fashion businesses, Fenty Beauty and Fenty x Savage. Along the way, she became a billionaire.
Rihanna’s 13-minute set at the Super Bowl LVIII — known in some corners of the internet as a “Rihanna concert interrupted by a football game” — was a confident performance by a star at the height of her powers.
First, the fashion. Rihanna wore a Loewe boiler suit, a custom breastplate by It Brit designer J.W. Anderson and two different Alaia coats — all in cherry red. Her MM6 Martin Margiela x Salomon Low Cross sneakers grounded the look, while her multiple Messika jewellery pieces brought the sparkle.
Rihanna entered the field via a floating platform, surrounded by a naval fleet’s worth of tracksuit-clad dancers in white. The set was reportedly made by 300 to 400 people in just eight minutes.
Rihanna ran through a medley of her greatest hits: “B*itch Better Have My Money,” “Only Girl In The World,” “Rude Boy,” “Work Work Work,” “All of The Lights,” “Run This Town” and “Umbrella.”
It was a high-octane, perfectly choreographed show of banger after banger. The highlight was the finale, Rihanna’s hit “Diamonds,” performed high above the field on a swaying stage, as winking lights in the crowd appeared to reference the song’s titular sparklers. Rihanna clearly has no fear of heights.
She also clearly felt no need to share her stage. Despite rumours to the contrary, no other artists made an appearance during her Super Bowl halftime show, including Drake. Instead, in a show of total control, Rihanna took a moment to powder her nose (using a Fenty Beauty compact, naturally) halfway through the set.
It was a power move perhaps only rivalled by the fact that Rihanna made the baby announcement of all baby announcements, when she appeared to cradle a burgeoning bump. After the show, her rep confirmed that yes, Rihanna is pregnant with her second child.
The baby reveal wasn’t the only surprise. That fact that Rihanna performed at the halftime show at all raised eyebrows. She had previously turned down the gig to stand in solidarity with quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his protest against police brutality.
Speaking to Vogue in 2019, Rihanna said she declined an offer to do the halftime show because she “couldn’t be a sellout.”
“I couldn’t be an enabler,” she told the magazine. “There’s things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way.”
There were rumblings that her mentor, Jay Z — who has partnered with the NFL to improve their social justice efforts — may have influenced Rihanna’s decision to say yes this time round.
Either way: What a show! Eh-eh.
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