Rihanna’s Super Bowl 57 halftime show performance was her first live event in years, and her first since becoming a mother nine months ago.
Rihanna stood above everything. In Glendale, Arizona’s State Farm Stadium, she hovered above the field for the entirety of the Super Bowl 57 halftime performance. She stood on a transparent rectangular platform that raised and lowered while singing the lyrics to “Bitch Better Have My Money” over the turf where the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs were engaged in a battle just moments earlier. She was wearing a puffy, bright red jumpsuit with tight, rubbery clothing underneath.
She was surrounded by dancers who had their own dangling platforms and moved in unison with her, wearing white ski suits and shady goggles.
She and the dancers were dropped to a lengthy platform that complemented her attire as she rushed through favourites including “Work,” “Where Have You Been,” and “Only Female,” screaming “Want you to make me feel like I’m the only girl in the world.”
There were no sudden costume changes, setting changes, or unexpected guest appearances that were a staple of previous Super Bowl halftime shows. ( Drake and Ye were featured on songs in her concert, but neither of them unexpectedly appeared.
Throughout the 13-minute performance, the concept and colour scheme remained the same, with red lights occasionally lighting the stage and golden pyrotechnics bursting in the air above her. Long pull-aways were possible on the expansive stage as she stared down the camera and overhead tracking shots of Rihanna and her dancers.
She once powdered her face and looked in the mirror before returning to the microphone.
She was raised back into the air by herself and performed “Diamonds,” which has the lyric “shine brilliant like a diamond,” as the show came to an end.
It was Rihanna’s first live performance in a long time and her first since she gave birth to her first child nine months ago.
At Super Bowl 57, country singer Chris Stapleton kept the national anthem simple by singing “The Star Spangled Banner” on the field by himself while accompanied only by his electric guitar. He did this just before the Kansas City Chiefs kicked off the game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
He performed the national anthem as a sombre ballad while sporting plain black denim, sunglasses, and carefully styled hair in place of his trademark feathered cowboy hat. He only momentarily rocked the song when he shouted the final lyrics, “flag yet wave” and “home of the free!”
Although it seemed slow, his anthem finished in 2 minutes, 2 seconds less than the 2 minutes, 5 seconds that the oddsmakers had anticipated. However, it was more than 10 seconds longer than Mickey Guyton’s song from the previous year. During Stapleton’s moving performance, both Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni and starting centre Jason Kelce had tears in their eyes.
Troy Kotsur, the first deaf person to win an acting Oscar and a member of CODA, signed the lyrics to the national anthem as the eight-time Grammy winner sang.
different anthems
Lift Every Voice and Sing by Abbot Elementary actress Sheryl Lee Ralph was performed prior to Chris Stapleton’s national anthem.
Philadelphia native Bradley Cooper, wearing an Eagles T-shirt, celebrated from the stands as his team put the game’s first points on the board. Another famous Philly fan, Kevin Hart, wearing a jersey, stood and flapped his arms.
Jay-Z, Tiffany Haddish, rapper GloRilla and chef Gordon Ramsay were also spotted in the stadium.
