By Daniela Garcia
The Super Bowl halftime show has always been one of the most beloved and awaited yearly spectacles, and for the 2023 ending of the football season, it was Rhihanna’s time to shine. Nearly 7 years after her last live performance “Bad Gal Riri”, took the stage once again to leave the entire world wanting more.
The showstopping 13-minute performance began with Rihanna rising from beneath a stage, surrounded by a large number of backup singers wearing silver suits and an interactive stage that had many levels suspended with cables in the sky. As the crowd rumbled with cheers, the singer proceeded to awe the viewers with a medley of her greatest hits.
“I have been a Rihanna fan for most of my life and had been waiting for her halftime show for a while,” Maria Ricardo, Junior at UT said. “Ever since the NFL announced her performance I had been counting the days, and hoping that she would release her new album after the show”
Rihanna’s fans were surely waiting cautiously for her to return. The queen of Barbados had been busy during her break from music, focusing on businesses and the challenges of becoming a new mother.
Fans were theorizing whether she would hint at a new product for her makeup brand Fenty beauty or possibly wear a lingerie set from her undergarment and loungewear brand Savage X Fenty.
To everyone’s surprise, Rihanna ended up using one of her most popular Fenty products, “The Invisimatte Instant Setting and Blotting Powder” to touch up her makeup mid-performance as she performed her hit songs “Umbrella”, “This is what you came for, “Were Have you Been” and many more.
As the halftime show went on, viewers couldn’t help but wait until Rihanna brought out another collaborator as a guest in her show. However, it was revealed that she was showcasing her belly, as she is currently expecting her second child with rapper boyfriend, A$$AP Rocky, and the “guest” was inside her belly.
After the performance, people noticed that Rihanna wasn’t joining her backup dancers to dance along but were holding back on some movements due to her pregnancy, which sparked controversy among the viewers who felt her performance was lacking dance.
“I incredibly enjoyed her performance, after I noticed she was pregnant it was suddenly okay that she wasn’t making any harsh movements or dancing, she is expecting and it is understandable. For us, her fans it is easy to empathize with her and we should not forget that singers are humans with limitations too,” Carmen Zurita, Rihanna superfan and UT Junior said
This year’s halftime show was a delight for some and lacking for others, but it was in no doubt a memorable event that Americans and people all over the world cherish as unique, entertaining, and above all a celebration of the football season finale as a treat for the millions that come to see the super bowl every year.
Until the next football season rolls around, who do you think soul be the next one to take over the halftime show?
