By Izzy Lee

Rihanna singing at the Super Bowl halftime show. Photo credit: @rihannaofficall on Instagram.

Two different types of people watch the Super Bowl: the people who watch to see the two most competitive teams in the NFL, and the people who go to the watch parties for the food, advertisements, and halftime show. Tiktoker Mikayla Nogueria even referenced Super Bowl LVII, which took place in Glendale, Arizona, on Feb. 12, as a “Rihanna concert,” rather than a highly anticipated game. Although the typical Super Bowl halftime show only lasts 13 minutes within the multi-hour Super Bowl game and broadcast, for fans of the performers, it is all about the thrill of who is performing, the costumes, stage arrangements, and mashups of songs. The Super Bowl halftime show is known as an extravaganza, and the world impatiently waits for the announcement of which hit artists take the stage for the upcoming show.

Rihanna’s decision to perform in the 2023 Super Bowl shocked many people, as she denied she would ever do an NFL halftime show in 2019. This was in response to the NFL’s backlash to players kneeling during the national anthem to protest racism. However, Rihanna has not been on a major stage in years, and she felt as if this is one of her only opportunities to get her name back out there. With her previous refusal to perform in a Super Bowl halftime show, there was some speculation about why she wasn’t getting paid for this performance. Many people were surprised to hear that artists don’t usually get paid for performing in the halftime show, but rather the NFL pays for the show’s expenses.

Seven years after Rihanna last released an album, she took the stage at halftime when the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles battled it out at Super Bowl LVII. For any longtime artist, it is hard to figure out the perfect set list that combines all of your highlights over the course of your career. It is hard enough to make it one of your best performances personally, but it is even harder to top the person from the previous year. Rihanna wanted her show to be something no one had ever seen before. Alongside sound engineer Patrick Baltzell, Rihanna and her crew planned for a set that allowed the stadium to be transformed in less than six minutes and still instilled that “wow” factor in the crowd. 

If you perhaps missed the halftime show, you additionally missed out on Rihanna gliding through the air on thin platforms. This may seem dangerous, as on the day of the halftime show, Rihanna also announced her pregnancy with her second child. However, this did not stop her from putting on a legendary performance. 

Phish’s New Year’s Eve show in 2019. Photo credit: @HeyItsKamo on Twitter.

Taking part in the show around Rihanna, 80 background dancers who were seen as “marshmallows” for their white, fluffy suits. Rihanna was dressed in an all-red, skin-tight outfit that allowed her to accentuate her pregnancy and stand out among her all-white background dancers. 

Her intentions of doing something no one has seen before in a halftime show were not achieved, as some viewers caught that her set showed similarities to jam band Phish’s elevated platforms during their 2019 New Year’s Eve concert in New York’s Madison Square Garden. 

Along the lines of not meeting people’s expectations, some viewers, including Tyler Stepanian (‘23), believe “In songs such as ‘All of the Lights’ and ‘Run This Town,’ she should have brought out Kan[Ye] West or Jay-Z, who were in attendance.” Fans might have been disappointed by Rihanna not bringing out Jay-Z, but some people would not want Ye featured, as he has recently gotten in trouble for his anti-Semitic comments. 

Even with the boldness of the platforms, Claiborne Dillard (‘23) believes, “She did a great job because she didn’t try to do too much.” Super Bowl halftime performers in the past, like Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, and Kendrick Lamar, all tried to overdo it, and their performances distracted the viewers from the authenticity of their hit songs. For Rihanna, people were upset by her set list, as they wanted to hear popular songs such as “Woo” or “Love on the Brain,” but Dillard summed it up perfectly when she said, “she has so many famous songs, it is hard to please everyone.”

Featured image: @rihannaofficall on Instagram.