In January 2023, it was announced that Rihanna would be headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show, taking place on February 12 2023 – and in true RiRi fashion, the singer put on a real show for the ages.
Marking her first live performance since 2017, the 34-year-old singer went all out with a 13-minute-long show featuring some of her greatest hits – as well as a seriously unexpected surprise. While many had hoped Rihanna's Half Time Show would serve as an announcement of an upcoming album, and even a world tour, Rihanna had another announcement in store... Namely: that she is pregnant with her second child.
Appearing on a levitating platform in a full red look and singing 'Bitch Better Have My Money', Rihanna's skin-tight Loewe jumpsuit and bustier revealed her growing baby bump beneath – much to fans' delight. The singer gave birth to her first child with ASAP Rocky in May 2022, and this will be her second with the rapper.
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Iconic as ever, Rihanna didn't say a word about the bump during her performance, instead belting out some of her most famous songs including 'Umbrella', 'We Found Love' and 'All Of The Lights' – all while occasionally rubbing her belly, surrounded by dancers dressed in head-to-toe white.
In January 2023, the singer shared a video of herself on Instagram to tease her upcoming Super Bowl performance, in which she first appears as a silhouette in an empty room, before walking forward as voiceovers of comments from her fans play.
'Dude, Rihanna, we've waited for you,' one says while another notes: 'It's been six years since the nine-time Grammy-winner dropped an album.'
At the end of the clip the singer puts her index finger to her mouth to silence her fans. 'Didn’t they tell you? LFGOOOOOO,' the Savage Fenty Instagram account commented on the post.
Following the news of Rihanna's upcoming gig, fans took social media to share their excitement and speculate that the singer, who hasn't released an album since 2016's Anti, could release a new album very soon.
'We've been starving to hear Riri's vocals for over five years now. Rihanna is back to the dominion which has been hers, and will always be hers !!! CANNOT EFFING WAIT [sic],' wrote one person on Twitter. 'Queen is back #RihannaSuperBowl [sic],' wrote another.
During a press conference held ahead of the upcoming show, Rihanna shared further details of what fans could expect.
'I've been so focused on the Super Bowl I totally forgot that my birthday's coming up. I totally forgot about Valentine's Day,' she said. As for the set-list, she said that choosing the songs 'was the biggest challenge' and went through 'probably about 39 versions' of the final line-up.
'That was the hardest, hardest part – deciding how to maximise 13 minutes but also celebrate. That's what this show is gonna be – it's gonna be a celebration of my catalog in the best way that we could've put it together,' explained the 34-year-old singer. 'You're trying to cram 17 years of work into 13 minutes, so it's difficult. Some songs we have to lose because of that, and that's gonna be okay, but I think we did a pretty good job of narrowing it down.'
Of the rumours that have been swirling about the singer potentially dropping new music in line with the performance, Rihanna remained vague – but she did drop a few hints that something new might be on the cards. 'Musically, I'm feeling open. I'm feeling open to exploring, discovering [and] creating things that are new, things that are different, things that are off, weird, might never make sense to my fans. I just want to play. I just want to have fun with music.'
During the same press conference, the singer also suggested she might incorporate her Barbadian heritage into the performance. 'That's a big part of why this is important for me to do this show – representation, representing for immigrants, representing for my country of Barbados, representing for Black women everywhere,' she said. 'That's really important. That's key, for people to see the possibilities. And I'm honoured to be here. I'm honoured to be doing this, this year.'
While Rihanna hasn't released a new album in over six years, she's been juggling her beauty business, Fenty, and adjusting to life as a new mum. She welcomed her and rapper ASAP Rocky's first child in May 2022. Speaking during the Super Bowl press conference, the singer spoke of the challenge of taking on such a big project with a young child: 'I mean, when I first got the call to do it again this year, I was like, "You sure? I'm three months postpartum. Should I be making major decisions like this right now? I might regret this."'
'But when you become a mum, there's something that just happens where you feel like you can take on the world,' she continued. 'You can do anything, and the Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world. So, as scary as that was... there's something exhilarating about the challenge of it all, and it's important for me to do this this year. It's important for representation. It's important for my son to see that.'
Past performers at the Halftime Show include the likes of Beyoncé, Madonna and Nicki Minaj. The show, which debuted in 1960, saw its first major performance come from Michael Jackson in 1993.
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