Rihanna – who gave birth to her first child, a baby boy, with A$AP Rocky in May – will headline the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on Feb. 12 and cameras will be reportedly following her every step of the way for the huge gig as part of a fly-on-the-wall program for AppleTV+.
A source told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: “There is a massive appetite for everything to do with Rihanna, especially as this will be her major return to the stage for the first time in years.
“She will be recorded during rehearsals and meetings in the lead-up to the big night and give an insight into what her life is really like now that she is returning to pop as a mum. Rihanna is a massive force to be reckoned with when it comes to music and so Apple has paid millions.
“The Super Bowl is one of, if not the, biggest stages in the world, so her show was always going to be huge. Add on top of that it’s a live comeback and the pressure is immense. She is keen for the world to remember why she is one of the greatest performers of all time.”
Rihanna recently admitted she is “nervous” and “excited” about headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show. She previously turned down the chance to perform at the Super Bowl in 2019, due to the way Colin Kaepernick, 34, was treated by the NFL.
Kaepernick refused to stand for the national anthem at the beginning of games to protest against police brutality and racial inequality and wasn’t signed by any teams after he became a free agent – leading him to sue the NFL in November 2017, saying team owners colluded not to hire him.
The suit was withdrawn in 2019, after Kaepernick and the NFL reached a confidential settlement, but he remains unsigned.
“I couldn’t dare do that. For what? Who gains from that? Not my people,” Rihanna said of her decision not to perform at the time. “I just couldn’t be a sell-out. I couldn’t be an enabler. There are things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way.”
