After nearly five years of being on a music hiatus, on Sunday, February 12^th, Rihanna performed at the 57^th Superbowl halftime show in Scottsdale, Arizona. Rihanna has accomplished many things in the past decade including the creation of her Fenty Beauty makeup line, her inclusive lingerie brand, Savage X Fenty, as well as welcoming a son in May 2022.

Since her ‘ANTI’ release in 2016 and her last live performance with DJ Khaled at the 2018 Grammy’s, Rihanna had taken a step back from the music industry and focused more on her brand FENTY, and herself.

In an interview with VIBE magazine, Rihanna said, “That was everything that I had at that moment for one album, and I’m gonna take a break and put [my energy] into other things.”

Rihanna had to make many decisions when it came to accepting the halftime show performance, as well as planning the 13-minute set.

“It’s literally like three to four hundred people breaking the stage down and building it back up and getting it out in eight minutes,” Rihanna said, “It’s almost impossible [but] we’re excited to do the Super Bowl.”

Right as she was beginning the performance, Rihanna teased the crowd by slightly rubbing her belly. She wore a metallic red bodysuit with a breast plate that showcased a “potential” baby bump. It wasn’t long after the show that Rihanna’s publicist revealed that she is expecting her second child with boyfriend ASAP Rocky.

Rihanna featured many of her hits that spanned her music career such as “Where Have You Been” while standing on floating platforms alongside her dancers. As fireworks shot out into the sky she sang “Only Girl (In The World).” “We Found Love”, “Rude Boy,” “Work,” “Wild Thoughts,” and “Pour It Up” followed. She also sang a few collabs including “All of the Lights” and “Run This Town”, though she did not bring out any special guests. She finished the show by performing “Umbrella” and “Diamonds” before saying thank you to the crowd.

Rihanna received many mixed reviews of her performance, some calling it underwhelming while others thought it was one of the better performances at the Super Bowl. Despite the mixed reviews, Rihanna’s performance averaged 118.7 million total viewers according to Nielson Fast National Data and Adobe Analytics and is the second most viewed Super Bowl game in history.