Rihanna, who just confirmed she’s expecting her second baby, may have just delivered one of the best Super Bowl Halftime Show‘s of all time, and famous viewers who watched the game at home are going wild over her performance. Especially after she performed an epic set list without any guest performers. As you can see below, stars like Mario Lopez, Jake Paul, Ashley Benson and more took to Twitter after the performance was over, saying she “slayed” and “didn’t need any guest performers” because she was that good. And her ex, Chris Brown, took to his Instagram to say “Go Girl” after she exited the stage, so he was clearly tuned in.
Looks like Chris Brown was tuned in to Rihanna’s #SuperBowl performance! (📸: @GettyImages)
— TheShadeRoom (@TheShadeRoom) February 13, 2023
Love me some @rihanna. She’s such a G she didn’t need any guest performers. Hits on top of hits!#Bravo
— Mario Lopez (@mariolopezviva) February 13, 2023
Rihanna just did what most halftime performers, male or female can’t do…slayed and stayed fully clothed. Legend.
— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) February 13, 2023
Back like she never left🔥🔥 RIHANNA
— Alex Morgan (@alexmorgan13) February 13, 2023
Rihanna’s boyfriend A$AP Rocky was also in the field, filming her with a huge smile on his face, so he definitely liked it, too.
Before the big game, Rihanna opened up about her performance and said that she had “39 versions” of her setlist. “You’re trying to cram 17 years of work into 13 minutes, so it’s difficult. Some songs we had to lose because of that,” she said during an Apple Music press conference on Feb. 9.
“It feels like it could have only been now,” she explained when asked why she finally agreed to headline a Super Bowl Halftime Show. “When you become a mom, something just happens where you feel like you could take on the world. It’s important for representation. It is important for my son to see that,” she said, before adding, “That’s a big part of why it is important for me to do this show — representing for immigrants, representing for my country Barbados, representing for black women everywhere.”
Rihanna, who gave birth to her first child in May 2022, hasn’t released an album since Anti in 2016, and she last performed live in 2018 at the Grammy Awards, so it’s been a minute since she did anything big in music like this. In recent years, she’s been focused on her cosmetics and fashion company Fenty, which helped her become a billionaire at 34. She was also nominated for Best Original Song at the 2023 Oscars after contributing a two songs — “Lift Me Up” and “Born Again” — on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.
