After a near-four-year performing hiatus, giving birth to her first child, and a seven-year drought since releasing her last album, Rihanna finally returned to the stage to perform the Super Bowl LVII halftime show. The run-up to the performance saw breathless debates: Will she use the moment to finally release new music? Will she compensate for abandoning her boycott of the NFL? Will she bring out a problematic artist, a redeemed artist, or no artist at all?
In the end, she did none of it—but she got everyone talking anyway, with a quasi-pregnancy announcement that had living rooms around the country asking “Is she … ? Again … ?” After recently giving birth to her first child—with her partner, the rapper A$AP Rocky, last May—this performance was expected to be her big comeback and a window into the next era of her career. Instead, Rihanna slightly rubbed her belly while donning a red spandex bodysuit with a metallic breast plate and large coat that showcased a potential baby bump. Not long after the performance, the singer’s publicists confirmed her new pregnancy, but not before the difficult-to-interpret moment sent the internet into a tizzy.
Rihanna’s pregnancy is also the likely explanation for the energy of her performance, which was impressive—those stages were high!—but leagues more subdued than most had expected. To add to that surprise, Rihanna unexpectedly threw in the song “All of the Lights,” by Ye, formerly Kanye West (she was featured on the track). In a show where many of her hits were barely featured in an attempt to include them all, “All of the Lights” was one of the songs that actually received a little more screen time. This instantly worried some fans, who thought it might be an introduction to inviting Kanye, who has recently alienated even his most controversial pals, to the stage as a guest. (Rihanna included Johnny Depp in her recent Fenty show.) But he didn’t appear, and the simple inclusion of the song didn’t hold much weight in the end: Rihanna promoted the show with a song that notably features the rapper, after all. And it may be Kanye’s song, but that’s not the part we would sing if someone asked, “How does that one go again?”
Another notable surprise: no one else showed up at all. Predictions had been surging that Rihanna would invite Janet Jackson as a redemptive move to retcon the narrative around her infamous Super Bowl appearance, while others had hoped for a reconciliation between her and her ex-beau Drake, who shares a handful of songs with her. Instead, she decided to keep the spotlight on herself and her dancers, dressed like a cross between astronauts and Michelin Men, as they performed on the dauntingly high platforms that hovered above the field.
In truth, all anyone should have expected from this show is that it would be nothing like we expected. The sheer individualism and indifference to those expectations is really the one thing we could’ve anticipated from an artist who historically simply doesn’t care about what the world wants from her, from her reputation for uncouth activity on social media to her unwavering refusal to release new music on anyone else’s schedule, instead focusing on her business—which she also strategically highlighted during her show. This performance, which is already being debated as one of the most iconic halftime shows or one of the most lackadaisical (both, somehow, being chalked up to her pregnancy), fits Rihanna’s recent M.O. perfectly. It’s a testament to her ability to stay in the conversation for reasons that have very little to do with her music, and a continuation of her legacy to do the most Rihanna thing possible: whatever the fuck she wants.
English (United States) ·