Four years since her last live performance, seven since her last studio album, Rihanna wasted no time to make a statement during her return to the stage at the Super Bowl half-time show. There was no entrance montage to her set, no musical build-up; we opened close up on Rihanna’s face, chin down as if readying for battle, her presence after years of pop music absentia an exclamation point unto itself. Dressed in a fittingly bold red suit, the Barbadian singer commanded a floating stage perched scarily high above the field, launched into a hard kickoff of her discography with Bitch Better Have My Money, and with one sweep of her hand over her belly, seemingly announced her second pregnancy just nine months after the birth of her son.
Such is the power of Rihanna, a mega-celebrity whose charisma and famously relaxed charm (and successful fashion and beauty businesses) have carried her through a long musical hiatus and at times overshadowed her extensive catalog of hits. Her halftime show capitalized on her reputation as being unbothered and effortlessly cool – no musical guest, barely any choreography, no stress or strenuousness, a possible huge pop culture news drop as a casual aside. (Her publicist has since confirmed the pregnancy.) At times she seemed a half beat behind her army of white-clad, hard-elbowed backup dancers. She floated, at certain points literally (and seemingly without fear of heights) above the expectations of an all-gas, no-brakes half-time show, with a detachment that could read as admirable self-possession or as frustrating boredom.
Which doesn’t really matter – Rihanna is an artist who understands the power of her presence, both in seriousness (how a strut on stage counts as entertainment unto itself) and as a bit (she at one point fielded a makeup compact from a backup dancer, a nod to Twitter jokes about her turning the show into a Fenty ad). Rihanna’s catalog is so extensive – she has 14 number one hits, the fourth most of all time – that any setlist (and there were 39 of them, according to her press conference) will be on some level a letdown. The final product served as a reminder of just how many immediately recognizable, still banging songs Rihanna delivered between the years 2007 and 2016, and also as an underwhelming, almost too-comfortable return to the musical spotlight.
By the laws of time and a 13-minute set, there were some disappointing exclusions (nothing from Anti other than Work? No SOS?), but Rihanna’s set powered through many of the hits – Where Have You Been All My Life, Only Girl in the World, We Found Love, Rude Boy inflected with the saucy, definitely not for family-friendly television S&M, Cake mixed in with Pour It Up. Her takeover of Kanye’s All of the Lights, as if the rapper weren’t even on the track, was a high point of undeniable energy and cultural power – an reminder, in just under 10 minutes, that Rihanna has so many good songs.
So many, and sung (or inflected on top of a backing track) flawlessly enough, to essentially let the numbers carry the performance for her. The singer committed to a minimal amount of choreography, at times barely moving or assuming the role of commander of her impeccable dancers. The middle section, zooming through later-era hits such as Work or DJ Khaled’s Wild Thoughts, had the impression of an afterthought – Rihanna giving the bare minimum, commanding the world’s attention with a shrug. Whether true or not, it works with her image as a relaxed queen after years of nearly unmatched pop music grinding (in the eight years between 2005 and 2012, she released seven albums). But it’s not necessarily the energy one expects from a Super Bowl performance, where performers such as The Weeknd in 2021, or Jennifer Lopez and Shakira in 2020, meet the pressure of the spotlight with intense, clear perfectionism.
Still, the journey ended on a high built on another high: the nostalgic reassurances of Umbrella, sung with a standing mic and dramatic red cape as Rihanna rose once again on her freakily high floating stage, and a full-belt version of Diamonds. That stage, wired to somewhere beyond our view, was visibly shaking during the final number, and yet still Rihanna seemed unbothered. It was a fitting final note for a set that relied more on star power than delivery - alone in the sky, fireworks overhead and surrounded by a sea of cell phone lights, Rihanna was above it all.
