Even before Rihanna set foot on stage for her Super Bowl halftime performance, #FentyBowl trended on Twitter, signaling a growing anticipation for her long-awaited return to music and her first time gracing a stage since January 2018. The camera panned over her face, her full-length red jumpsuit and her hands lightly cradling her belly. She began her set with “B—- Better Have My Money,” an anthem that implores us all to demand what we’re worth before transitioning into a slew of hits, backed by an electrified band and dancers moving in lockstep, wearing custom outfits from her own lingerie and athleisure line.
Rihanna chose to helm the stage solo. It feels safe to assume that wasn’t coincidental.
The halftime show wasn’t only a spotlight for Rihanna’s innate ability to captivate a crowd more than seven years after releasing her last album. It was also a statement: As that jumpsuit draped across her visibly pregnant belly, Rihanna embodied the notion that working mothers can still command the spotlight while retaining their sexiness and sexuality and asserting their agency. (After the performance, Rihanna’s representation confirmed that she is pregnant with her second child. She birthed her first child with A$AP Rocky in May 2022.) It’s no wonder, then, that one of her opening lyrics was “Who y’all think y’all frontin’ on?”
While many Super Bowl halftime performers share the stage with other artists — like Dr. Dre’s star-studded 2022 performance — Rihanna chose to helm the stage solo. It feels safe to assume that wasn’t coincidental. She could’ve asked Jay-Z to perform “Run This Town” or asked Drake to spit his verse on “Work,” but inviting other artists would’ve belied the point. Rihanna inherently understood the magnitude of the moment.
She’s more than a decade into a career where she’s crisscrossed musical genres, topped multiple Billboard charts, left music nearly altogether to conquer the beauty and…
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