American-Barbados singer, Rihanna
American-Barbadian singer, Rihanna headlined the 57th Super Bowl Halftime Show on February 12, 2023, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, which marked her first live performance in six years.
Clad in an all-red outfit, the celebrated music icon cradled her ‘bulging’ belly at one point during her performance.
Rihanna opened up her 13-minute performance at the 57th Super Bowl Halftime Show with "B---- Better Have My Money" and ended her night with her 'monster' hit song "Diamonds."
Her performance brought back memories to many music fans who had missed the pop star for the past five years after she decided to take a music break.
Rihanna was first billed to perform at the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2019 but she turned it down as a show of support for former quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who was ousted from the NFL for kneeling in protest of systemic racism and police brutality. “I just couldn’t be a sellout,” the pop star said at the time, “I couldn’t be an enabler.”
But she made a comeback in 2023 saying that “I felt like it was now or never for me. The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world, it's an entertainer's dream to be on a stage like that."
However, Rihanna won’t be paid for her Super Bowl performance as is custom for halftime headliners since the show began in 1967.
According to Forbes, musicians who graced the occasion are not paid. Forbes details that the Super Bowl Halftime Show is a dream for every American artist because the show does offer huge benefits from exposure to a massive audience.
According to Forbes, more than 192 million people watched the Super Bowl Halftime Show and that is the benefit the pop star got from gracing the show.
Below are some of the benefits other performers got from gracing the show according to a report put together by Billboard
When Lady Gaga took the stage in 2017, her album and song sales, for example, increased 1000%, and Jennifer Lopez gained 2.3 million new followers across social media after she and Shakira headlined in 2020.
Last year’s performance featured West Coast hip-hop starring legends Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, and 50 Cent, each of whom saw a boost to their catalogs.
In the week after the Super Bowl, Dr. Dre saw a 183% increase in album sales and a 105% bump in on-demand streams, according to data from Luminate. Blige’s album sales jumped 999% during that time, and Snoop Dogg’s rose 361, Luminate said.
And the production itself continued to earn accolades long after the big game ended: it was nominated for five Emmy awards and won three, including the trophy for Best Live Variety Special, the first time a Super Bowl halftime show had won that honour.
