It was only a month after the NFL announced Rihanna was headlining the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime show that the singer released her first solo single in more than six years. Days later, Rihanna finally broke her silence on what it felt like to accept the coveted halftime gig.
“I can’t believe I even said yes,” Rihanna told ET reporter Rachel Smith on the red carpet for her fourth “Savage X Fenty” fashion showcase. “It was one of those things that even when I announced it, I was like, ‘OK, I can’t take it back. Now, it’s like final.’”
Rihanna agreed to the performance in the midst of an interminable music hiatus during which she became a newfound mother — and the youngest self-made female billionaire after turning her Fenty Beauty fashion line into an empire.
While her return to music with the lead soundtrack single for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was widely celebrated, Rihanna is solely focused on 2023.
“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,” Rihanna told ET. “But it’s nerve-racking. You want to get it right. You know, everybody’s watching. And they’re rooting for you. And I want to get it right.”
The 34-year-old Grammy winner told the outlet “nothing would have gotten me out of the house if it wasn’t a challenge like that.” She added that she got “real comfortable being at home as a mom” but that the halftime show was “something that I’ve never done before.”
“I want to incorporate different aspects of entertainment and things that I just enjoy and bring it to the stage,” Rihanna said. “I want to celebrate the music that I’ve made.”
Rihanna’s “Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 4” made headlines when Johnny Depp was revealed as a guest star following his highly-controversial defamation trial against Amber Heard. It will also include entertainers like Don Toliver, Maxwell, Taraji P. Henson and Winston Duke.
“Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 4” will stream exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on Nov. 9. The 2023 Super Bowl in Arizona has a firm date of Feb. 12, 2023.
