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Rihanna, photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images
The stage lights for the Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show switch on and the intro to B*tch Better Have My Money begins. A femme fatale can be seen staring deviously into the camera, raising the microphone to her lips and confidently singing the opening lyric of the song.
The woman is no other than 34-year-old Barbadian singer/songwriter Rihanna, appearing with an all-red outfit and an apparently pregnant figure, shocking viewers all over the nation. A rep for Rihanna confirmed the pregnancy with the father of her first child, A$AP Rocky.
Rocky cheered her on from the sidelines and was even seen taking videos of his beloved girlfriend as she was performing. Along with this, it disappointed viewers to realize that there were no special guests added to Rihanna’s Super Bowl performance. However, in the singer’s own vision, her unborn baby acted as the show-stopping special guest.
The performance has captivated all of social media and will continue to have people talking about it for days; the stage was also a comeback for the singer, as her last performance was at the 2018 Grammy Awards (five years ago). Gracing Arizona’s State Farm Stadium, Rihanna sang all of her top tracks from her discography. The setlist included songs such as Only Girl (In The World), Work, We Found Love, and All Of The Lights (featuring Rihanna).
Throughout the show, the Umbrella singer was lifted up on platforms various times throughout the performance, along with dancers who appeared in cult-like uniforms. The entirety of the set was aesthetically and satisfyingly pleasing, as red lights and red stages tied everything together and made it whole. Rihanna even grooved along with her dancers for dance breaks, iconically stopping for a split-second to fix her makeup with a new Fenty Beauty product (Fenty Beauty is a cosmetics company released by the singer in Fall of 2017).
Social media users and news sources are also praising sign language interpreter Justina Miles, who assisted Rihanna in interpreting her top hits into American Sign Language. Cameras show that Miles was passionately interpreting off stage, adding in her own moves, increasing the existing power of the songs to those watching.
Wrapping up the stunning and brilliant performance, Rihanna finished her set with the singer’s hit song Diamonds, which was released in 2012 on her album Unapologetic. Seen in various social media videos taken by fans in the audience, a screen aside from the stage asked for fans to turn on their flashlights and join in on the action. The gesture can be seen behind Rihanna, which finished the show perfectly in a way nobody else could achieve.
As for Rihanna’s fans who watched the sweeping performance, in-person and in the comforts of their own home, they seem to all be anticipating a new album (and it is arguably long overdue). The singer last released her album ANTI in 2016, and has yet to confirm an exact date for a brand-new shiny record.