At Sunday’s Super Bowl, Rihanna performed an exciting and hit-filled half-time concert, but when she unveiled an unexpected special guest, social media erupted.
The Bajan singer was asked if there would be any surprises during her concert at Arizona’s State Farm Stadium in an interview last week.
She responded, “I’m debating about bringing someone. We’ll see, I’m not sure.
Fans naturally concluded she was referring to one of the several musicians she has worked with throughout her successful career. It seems plausible and in keeping with the half-time show tradition of unexpected duets that Jay-Z, Drake, or Eminem would make a guest appearance.
But none of them were mentioned by Rihanna. She was actually dropping hints that she was expecting her second kid at the time, but nobody noticed.
Although the singer didn’t perform any brand-new music during her appearance at the Super Bowl on Sunday, the baby bump she showed off nearly crashed the internet.
As a throng of enthusiastic dancers, all dressed in white, gathered below, Rihanna made her appearance on one of several floating platforms while donning an all-red bespoke jumpsuit designed by Loewe.
Better Have My Money was the singer’s first song, which was an amusing introduction given that she wasn’t being paid for her appearance at the Super Bowl. The crowd erupted in applause.
The dancers beneath the 34-year-old while she charmed the audience from above displayed razor-sharp choreography that they would carry throughout the entire performance.
In front-loading her set with some of her most danceable and up-tempo songs, such as Only Girl (In The World) and the brilliant Where Have You Been, the singer blasted through a number of well-known tunes.
It was a wise choice to stick to her huge back catalogue, one of the best in pop, despite rumours that the artist may use the occasion to perform new music not materialising.
The performer performed only the first verse or chorus of certain songs while jamming a tonne of hits into a brief 14-minute set. But massive singles like Rude Boy were countered with the less well-known and slightly harder-edged Pour It Up.
The set list utilised some of her most well-known collaborations, which was somewhat disappointing because none of her collaborators actually joined her on stage.
Jay-Z, Ye (previously Kanye West), or DJ Khaled did not make a presence during her performances of Run This Town, All of the Lights, or Wild Thoughts.
But their absence didn’t matter. By this point, everyone’s attention was firmly on an entirely different, and very visible, special guest.
As admirers rushed to express their theories regarding Rihanna’s alleged baby bump, confusion first swept social media. Many others pointed out that the singer, who is well known for her body positivity, might just have been showcasing her curvier form as a result of her previous pregnancy.
Rihanna’s bump was evident during the performance, although she did not make it as obvious a point to attract attention to it as Beyoncé did at the MTV VMAs in 2011, when she famously dropped her microphone, unbuttoned her jacket, and caressed her stomach.
On Sunday, though, as Rihanna’s set developed, fans grew more and more certain that she was carrying a second child—nine months after she and her partner A$AP Rocky welcomed their son.
As her fans argued about which trimester the singer might be in, Rihanna’s handlers made the good news official within an hour of the show’s conclusion.
The response on social media was mostly positive, even though some fans admitted to a hint of regret as this will probably spell another delay for Rihanna’s eagerly anticipated ninth studio album.
In contrast, Rihanna’s performance had no outfit changes, which is totally understandable, and her band appeared positively insignificant in comparison to the quantity of dancers.
For those who recall why she previously declined the Super Bowl, Rihanna’s set was noticeably low on political messages in contrast to last year’s half-time show, which saw Eminem take the knee on stage.
The singer admitted to declining the invitation to Vogue in 2019 in support of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who made headlines by kneeling during the playing of the national anthem to denounce racism and police brutality. “I was unable to be a sellout. I couldn’t be a facilitator, “At the time, she remarked.
In light of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, “taking the knee” has become much more regular four years later, and Rihanna’s appearance as the Super Bowl’s headlining act may be interpreted as her endorsement of the NFL’s development in recent years.
Fans generally agreed that her performance, which included a set list that she had earlier in the week joked had gone through 39 iterations before being finalised, was worth the wait.
Even while performing, Rihanna took time to touch up her makeup in a subtle advertisement for her cosmetics line, which instantly went viral.
Meanwhile, the annual jokes about the culture clash between pop music fans and sports fans were in full swing on social media, with Rihanna even embracing them herself.
Ahead of the show, her clothing label manufactured T-shirts with the slogan: “Rihanna concert interrupted by a football game. Weird but whatever.” Model Cara Delevingne was among the attendees sporting one on Sunday.
Fans of Rihanna acknowledge that she may not always have the best voice in music. Even if the song was unfamiliar, you would quickly recognise it as hers on the radio since it is more recognisable than it is powerful.
Tom Breihan of Stereogum said of Rihanna before her Super Bowl performance: “Rihanna never needed to over-sing anything; she always sounded too cool to emote.”
The sheer volume of hits that Rihanna has amassed, though, has distinguished her from some of her contemporaries. She produced chart-toppers in the late 2000s and the early 2010s faster than the best songwriters in the business could write them.
In just two years, she put out seven albums, achieving a new international smash every few weeks. The quantity of songs she was unable to include in her Super Bowl performance was therefore probably one predictable disappointment.
Some of her earlier hits, such Pon de Replay and SOS, as well as the pounding Don’t Stop The Music and the snappy What’s My Name, would have been a hit (although we did get a tiny snippet of the latter right at the beginning, before she appeared on stage).
Given the Super Bowl’s history of pop musicians offending family audiences during the half-time performance, other fan favourites, such the somewhat violent S&M, were probably best avoided.
The music wasn’t entirely absent, though; its vocal hook was overlaid on We Found Love, and a few seconds of another raunchy but well-liked song, Birthday Cake, were teased right before Pour It Up.
Everyone should be thankful that her most recent single, Lift Me Up, from the soundtrack to Marvel’s Wakanda Forever, did not detract from her performance. Despite being a very good song that deserves to be nominated for an Oscar, it would not have been appropriate for the Super Bowl.
Instead, as she sped towards the conclusion of her concert, Rihanna used some of her biggest singles, capping it off with her ode to the British weather, Umbrella, and the rousing, anthemic Diamonds.
