It was worth the wait. After five long years, Rihanna made her stage comeback for the Super Bowl LVII halftime show on Sunday night. Although she didn’t have any surprise performers join her, she did have a special guest in the form of a new baby on the way, as she proudly flaunted her baby bump throughout the performance. The Barbados-born singer’s representatives revealed that the singer is expecting a child.
In 13 minutes, the singer reminded the world of why she is a musical queen, even though she hasn’t produced an album since 2016. Among her songs, she played “Bitch Better Have My Money” as she floated on a stage among dancers in a gorgeous crimson dress. “Where Have You Been” followed. As rockets lit up the sky, she sang “Only Girl (In the World).”
She displayed her vocal range when she lowered things down a notch for “We Found Love” as she descended to dance on the field with her bevvy of dancers. She offered the Navy all of the hits, including “Rude Boy,” “Work,” “Wild Thoughts,” and “Pour It Up.” And she nailed her collabs, too, releasing “All of the Lights” and “Run This Town” (albeit she played without any special guests) until it culminated with her blockbuster song, “Umbrella.” She once again went on the podium as it raised for “Diamonds.” She thanked everyone as she glanced at the fireworks that highlighted the occasion
Earlier in the week, she disclosed that she cut the setlist down from approximately 39 iterations. “You’re trying to squeeze 17 years of labour into 13 minutes, so it’s challenging. Some songs we had to lose because of that, and that’s going to be OK, but I believe we did a very good job of reducing it down,” she told reporters at a press conference earlier in the week.
The extravaganza marks Rihanna’s first public performance in almost five years, last going onstage at the 2018 Grammys to sing “Wild Thoughts” with DJ Khaled. Around that time, a Super Bowl halftime show was on Rihanna’s radar, though she turned down offers in 2018 and 2019 in solidarity with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who was all but blacklisted from the NFL after taking a knee during the national anthem in protest of racial injustice and police brutality during the 2016 season.
Along with preparation for her Super Bowl halftime performance, Rihanna has been busy with a variety of projects in recent months. She presented her fourth “Savage X Fenty” fashion show in November and, most significantly, debuted some new songs. The singer recorded two songs for the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack, “Lift Me” (which was subsequently nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars) and “Born Again,” marking her first releases since her 2016 album, Anti.
