Rihanna Teases Her Long-Awaited Super Bowl Halftime Performance
We are just days away from the NFL Championship Game first Rihanna concert since 2016. The singer appeared at a
Victoria Liotta
We are just days away from the NFL Championship Game first Rihanna concert since 2016. The singer appeared at a Super Bowl 2023 press conference in Phoenix, Arizona on Thursday where she teased her long-awaited Super Bowl halftime performance.
“We’ve been working on it for a while, and every day it just gets closer and closer to the finished product. Today’s a really big rehearsal, a really important one, that’s going to be crucial for Sunday,” Rihanna said, looking chic in a leather jacket, edgy patterned dress, and lace-up heels.
“It’s a lot of preparation. This is the week that – it really is [about] being tested. Everyone, we’re just tightening up everything, everybody’s dialing in, everybody’s tuning up and [it’s] a lot of moving parts,” she added.
Prepare Your Eyes For Super Bowl Halftime
Regardless of what Steven A. Smith had to say about Queen Rih, the “work” singer’s positive sentiments towards the work put into the making of the show have us confident that our jaws will be dropped and our eyes will be glued to the television for 13 minutes.
The Barbados native explained that one of her biggest challenges when putting together the Super Bowl halftime show was narrowing down her setlist.
While chatting with Apple Music Radio’s Nadeska Alexis, she admitted, “That was the hardest, hardest part. Deciding how to maximize 13 minutes, but also celebrate. And that’s what this show’s going to be; a celebration.”
“You’re going to see on Sunday, just from the time it starts, it just never ends, until it’s like the very last second,” she added. “There are a lot of people who are a part of this show, and a huge part of the reason why this show is going to be as incredible as it is. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
The Right Challange At The Right Time
If you didn’t know, Rihanna was actually asked to perform at the Super Bowl halftime in 2019 however, she turned it down. And, going into 2023, she felt that there was no better time than now to say “yes.”
“It feels like it could have only been now. When I first got the call to do it again this year, I was like, ‘You sure? I’m three months postpartum, should I be making major decisions like this right now? Like, I might regret this,’” she recalled.
“But when you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you can take on the world, you can do anything. And the Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world,” she continued.
“So as scary as that was because I haven’t been on stage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all. And it’s important for me to do this year. It’s important for representation and it’s important for my son to see that.”
Rumors continue to swirl that the Fenty founder is expected to release new music in the near future. And well, we can only hope!