The year 2022 marks six years since Rihanna released Anti, her eighth studio album. The world hasn’t been the same without her, and her creative influence on music has been missed dearly.
On September 25th, you notice that Rihanna is trending on Twitter. The Barbadian singer tweeted a picture of her tattooed hand holding up a football. An official NFL Twitter account confirmed that Rihanna will be headlining the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show. You can breathe now, for you have officially survived the Rihanna Drought.
Who will join Rihanna on stage?
In case you are new to the Super Bowl, and you’re only reading this for Rihanna (I don’t blame you), the Super Bowl is the highly anticipated final playoff game of the National Football League to determine the year’s champion football team. That part is only relevant if you’re a person that cares about sports, but for me, the real standout moment of the Super Bowl is the halftime show (and the commercials). If you’re like me, you have very vivid memories of the grand performances that have taken place on the halftime stage, with memorizing lights and smoke machines that give the artists a fantastical mystique.
Being the Super Bowl’s halftime headliner is coveted among musical artists as it guarantees a lot of eyes on them at one of the greatest moments of their careers. This moment is definitely a landmark in Rihanna’s career. Still, it is a shock to some since, in a 2019 interview with Vogue, Rihanna confirmed she turned down the offer to stand in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. She said: “There’s things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way.”
The halftime show is known for bringing surprise guests onto the stage with the headliners. When Beyonce headlined in 2013, she got her fellow Destiny’s Childs members to the stage. In the months leading up to the 2023 halftime show, there will be much speculation over who Rihanna will invite to perform with her. Will her current partner and father of her first child A$AP Rocky join her? Or possibly lover boy Drake? I hope that Normani will make an appearance since she is one of the band ambassadors for Fenty.
Rihanna could choose not to share the spotlight with anyone since this is her grand welcome back to the stage. The 2020 and 2022 halftime shows had multiple singers co-headline in addition to having special guests. The 2021 halftime show was headlined solely by The Weeknd and didn’t feature any special guests because it didn’t fit the narrative he planned for the set. Whether Rihanna takes on special guests or not, it is unlikely that Rihanna won’t bring her A-game to an event like this.
Is Rihanna here to stay?
Stan Twitter immediately erupted with joy at the singer’s return. Over the years, some fans of the singer have speculated that Rihanna would never return to music.
Rihanna broke her silence after the announcement commenting: “I’m nervous, but I’m excited.” Her performance on February 12th, 2023, will be her first performance in years since taking the stage at the 2018 Grammys to sing DJ Khaled’s hit “Wild Thoughts” on which she was a collaborator. The fashion icon stepped out in a stunning silver football jersey paired with matching silver, glittery sunglasses and a handbag. Some wonder if she donned the chic off-duty look for a late-night trip to the recording studio to work on the anticipated new album, or R9, as her patient fans have dubbed it.
Even with the star’s long hiatus from releasing music, a fantastic performance from RiRi is almost certainly guaranteed. Rihanna’s career has certainly not slowed down, as the singer has explored ventures into acting and business. In the summer of 2018, she starred in the heist-comedy Ocean’s 8 along with the accomplished ensemble cast of Sandra Bullock, Mindy Kaling, Anne Hathaway, etc. Rihanna became a co-lead of Donald Glover, also known as Childish Gambino, to work on the musical film Guava Island.
Even if it wasn’t through a musical outlet Rihanna’s creativity shone in her new projects, and she has flourished as a businesswoman. In 2017 Rihanna launched her wildly successful cosmetics brand Fenty. Fenty has become a highly successful and revolutionary brand that received widespread praise for its inclusive range of foundations. In 2018 Rihanna founded Savage X Fenty, a lingerie brand that, while initially only sold online, will reportedly be receiving its own brick-and-mortar stores soon. Since 2018, Savage X Fenty has had elaborate fashion shows during New York Fashion Week that feature industry favorite runway models and musical performances from iconic artists. Rihanna’s experience shows that she can be trusted to deliver a spectacle in February. There’s no reason to be anything but hyped for what is the return of one of this generation’s most legendary creatives and performers.