BY NADIA CENICEROS

On Feb. 12, 2023, Singer-songwriter Rihanna performed at the 57th Super Bowl Halftime show after seven years of not performing. Rihanna is a 34-year-old Barbadian pop and R&B singer. She is known for her famous songs like, “Pon Del Rey”, “Love On The Brain”, “Woo” and many more.

After Rihanna released her last album “Anti” on Jan. 12, 2016, she took a step back from the music industry to focus on other things like her cosmetics brand, “Fenty Beauty” in September 2017.  In 2022, she released “Lift Me Up” which was a part of the Black Panther Wakanda Forever soundtrack. Her last tour was her Anti Tour from March 2016 to November 2016. Since her album and tour, Rihanna did not perform or make music for seven years. During the seven-year time period, she started dating A$AP Rocky, a 34-year American rapper. Rihanna and A$AP Rocky started dating in May 2021 and have been together since. On May 13, 2022, she gave birth to her first child. 

Rihanna standing on the platform at the Superbowl before performing (FentyBeauty/Instagram)

Rihanna performed her most popular songs Sunday night at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, sponsored by Apple Music.  Her setlist included

-B—- Better Have My Money

-Where Have You Been

-Only Girl

-We Found Love

-Rude Boy

-Work

-Wild Thoughts

-Pour It Up

-All of the Lights

-Run This Town

-Umbrella

-Diamonds

Rihanna also announced her pregnancy with her second child. She opened her performance by showing her stomach and announcing to everyone that she is pregnant after the show. Rihanna performed in an all red outfit while her dancers took the stage in all white. She was on a platform 15 to 60 feet off the ground during certain parts of the performance. There was speculation since she announced she was performing at the Superbowl of who her special guest would be, however, she performed alone with her dancers. The choreography was created by Parris Goebel, a choreographer and founder of The Palace Dance Studio”.  During the performance, she took the opportunity to promote her beauty brand “Fenty Beauty” by touching up her makeup in the middle of the show. 

The performance was 13 minutes long and needed over 800 people to make the show possible. Aaron Siebert, the project leader for the making of the platforms had said that it was “The most technically advanced Super Bowl halftime show that’s ever been done because of the amount of tech used to move the platforms.” Her halftime show performance will go down in pop cultural history.