Super Bowl 2023: The three major takeaways from Rihanna’s performance
So the Super Bowl happened overnight in the States, a type of US football, but eyes are really on the halftime acts. This year it was Rihanna.
The big sporting event typically hauls in the biggest musicians on the planet to play at halftime. Previous years have welcomed Beyonce, The Weeknd and Shakira to do performances.
The Super Bowl has gained popularity in the UK over the past decade, with many pubs, bars and restaurants in London staying open all night to show the game and serve food until the morning.
This year it was Rihanna, who performed live for the first time in four years. Here are the three big things you need to know from last night.
Super Bowl 2023: the three things you need to know
1. Critics were positive about the singer’s first return to the spotlight
The Guardian called Rihanna “relaxed” in her first performance in almost half a decade. “Rihanna wasted no time to make a statement during her return to the stage at the Super Bowl halftime show,” they said. “There was no entrance montage to her set, no musical build-up; we opened close up on Rihanna’s face, chin down as if readying for battle, her presence after years of pop music absentia an exclamation point unto itself.”
However, they also called the show “an underwhelming, almost too-comfortable return to the musical spotlight.”
The Hollywood Reporter was more effusive, saying the singer had “offered cohesiveness rather than chaos.” As were Rolling Stone, who said: “Nothing except Rihanna being a boss and a half on her flying stage, reigning supreme at her Super Bowl halftime show and crushing every possible prediction about how she would handle her first public performance in more than five years.”
2. Rihanna broke with tradition by not bringing on any surprise guests
Part of the Super Bowl’s flair is that whole “omg look who’s turned up factor. Beyonce bought out Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams from Destiny’s Child and 50 Cent was a surprise guests in 2022.
Would Tom Holland join Rihanna after that viral video? Nope: she relied purely on her own energy, and with the help of her backing dancers and band, performed a straight ten-minute mash-up of some of her biggest hits.
She didn’t change costumes either, another Super Bowl trope: she remained in one red bodysuit throughout the show, and didn’t appear to have much choreography, relying on her dancers to make the show more varied to look at.
3. She announced she is pregnant again
The biggest news from the show was that Rihanna announced her second baby is on the way. The singer has one baby, a 9-month-old boy, with A$AP Rocky, and her rep confirmed following her performance that another is due.
“I was like, ‘You sure? I’m three months postpartum. Should I be making major decisions like this right now? I might regret this,’” she said.
“When you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you could take on the world — you can do anything,” she added. “And the Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world, so as scary as that was … there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all,” she said. “It’s important for my son to see that.”
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