Rihanna is back: At the Superbowl on the night of February 13, she performed again after a five-year break from the stage. The 34-year-old appeared in a deep red jacket suit, sang her greatest hits, revealed her baby bump and floated 25 meters above Plexiglas panes surrounded by dancers. Many of her fans are celebrating the performance on social media – some others bemoan the possible backing vocals, the lack of new music, and also wished Jay Z was on stage instead of the baby announcement.
Rihanna’s full Super Bowl halftime performance pic.twitter.com/2CrDybfJJn
— ? (@megsmedia) February 13, 2023
Playback and performance despite pregnancy – the reactions
Over Two million Superbowl viewers saw Rihanna’s performance. However, she allowed herself a playback in many passages of her songs – that seems to annoy some people. For example, one user tweeted:
Young Rihanna worse than ZDF Fernsehgarten just almost only playback
— Dorschball (@dorschball) February 13, 2023
Meanwhile, model Cara Delevingne caused a stir with her Rihanna post: “Rihanna concert is interrupted by a football game, weird but whatever” is printed on her T-shirt. The picture went viral and now has more than three million likes on Instagram. So for Delevingne, the halftime show was far more important than the football game.
Many women celebrate Rihanna’s commitment to achieving immense achievements despite pregnancy. A Twitter user wrote in her post: “Lots of respect for Rihanna for standing up for all pregnant women and showing the world that pregnancy is not a disqualifying trait for any job, including performing on the world’s greatest stage millions of viewers!”
Mad respect for #Rhianna for repping for pregnant women everywhere and showing the world that pregnancy is not a disqualifying characteristic for any job including performing on the world’s largest stage in front of millions! #RihannaSuperBowl
— Areva Martin, Esq. (@ArevaMartin) February 13, 2023
Life partner A$AP Rocky also seems to like the performance:
Asap Rocky having the biggest smile being proud of Rihanna my HEART ❤️? #SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/pXnTZxuVdn
— chérie ✨✌??? (@MissMaCherie) February 13, 2023
Some other viewers noticed one translator in particular, and one user commented: “She’s having the time of her life”
The translator is having the time of her life ? #RihannaSuperBowl @rihanna pic.twitter.com/8uLlteOgDK
— ₹ (@httpwoolfx) February 13, 2023
Superbowl performance details
Rihanna has had a busy six years without releasing an album: in 2022 she received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song for her first single since 2017 (“Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) ). Finally, in May of that year, her and A$AP Rocky’s son was born. Her companies Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty are also doing well: the former is currently valued at $2.8 billion.
Rihanna sang a medley of 12 hits during the 13-minute performance: “Bitch Better Have My Money”, “Where Have You Been”, “Only Girl (In the World)”, “We Found Love”, “Rude Boy”, Work, Wild Thoughts, Pour It Up, All of the Lights, Run This Town, Umbrella and Diamonds.
The red stage outfit clearly revealed her baby bump in all dance movements. A few months earlier, the musician had announced a “surprise guest” at the Superbowl performance. If fans were expecting rapper Jay Z, they were disappointed – the “guest” is her second pregnancy.
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