Rihanna will headline the halftime show at next year’s SuperBowl, the pop singer, her record label, the NFL and new halftime show sponsor Apple Music announced Sunday.
The Twitter accounts of the NFL and Roc Nation — the record label that represents Rihanna, founded by rapper Jay-Z — posted a photo of what appears to be the singer’s tattooed arm holding up an NFL football, along with the caption “Let’s GO.” Rihanna posted the same image on her Instagram account.
Apple Music, which the NFL announced earlier this week would replace previous sponsor Pepsi as the sponsor of the upcoming halftime show, the news also confirmed in a tweet.
“IT’S ON. @rihanna will take the stage for the first-ever Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show on 2/12/23,” the tweet read.
Super Bowl LVII is scheduled for February 12 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
The game, and the halftime show, are usually highly anticipated television events. Last year’s game, in which the Los Angeles Rams triumphed over the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20, drew what the NFL estimated more than 208 million viewers.
That halftime show – that the NFL say had over 120 million viewers – featuring a mix of performances by hip-hop legends Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige, plus a surprise appearance from 50 Cent.
Past Super Bowl performers have included Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga.
Rihanna had the chance to headline the 2019 halftime show, but confirmed to Vogue later that year that she turned it down to support Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who gained both support and controversy for kneeling during the national anthem during NFL games for protesting police brutality against black people and other forms of racial injustice.
“I wouldn’t dare,” Rihanna told Vogue in 2019 about her decision. “For what? Who gains from that? Not my people. I just couldn’t be a seller. I couldn’t be an enabler. There are things within that organization that I totally disagree with, and I wasn’t going to to be of service in any way.”
The 2019 performance was instead spearheaded by the band Maroon 5 – whose frontman, Adam Levine, has been mired in controversy following a recent fake scandal.
Rihanna released her most recent album ‘Anti’ in 2016. In an interview with Vogue earlier this year, the 34-year-old pop singer said she was working on a new album. she won nine Grammy Awardsplus several American Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards.
Earlier this year she came in at #21 on Forbes’ Annual List of America’s Best Homemade Women due to her $1.4 billion net worth, primarily earned through the success of Fenty Beauty, which she co-owns with French luxury chain LVMH.
Rihanna also has a lingerie line, Savage x Fenty, which raised funds in February 2021 at a valuation of $1 billion, Forbes reported. Executives are said to be weighing an IPO of the lingerie line at a valuation of $3 billion earlier this year. Bloomberg reported:.
In May, Rihanna gave birth to her first child, a son, with boyfriend A$AP Rockypeople reported.