As the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles prepare to square off in Super Bowl LVII, pop star Rihanna is preparing for her 13 minutes on the field for the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show. At a press conference on Thursday, the Barbadian singer fielded questions from the press, revealing that she workshopped “probably about 39″ different setlists for her appearance.
“The setlist was the biggest challenge… deciding how to maximize 13 minutes,” she told reporters. “It’s going to be a celebration of my catalog.”
The Halftime Show on Sunday will mark Rihanna’s first public performance in five years, last taking the stage at the 2018 Grammy Awards to perform “Wild Thoughts” with DJ Khaled. While she hasn’t released an album since 2016’s Anti, Rihanna has kept busy in the interim with acting, founding her beauty brand Fenty, and recently becoming a billionaire at age 34. Her most significant milestone as of late was giving birth to her first child back in May 2022. Just three months later, she accepted the call to perform at the Super Bowl.
“It feels like it could have only been now. I mean, when I first got the call to do it again this year, I was like, ‘Psst, you sure?’ I’m three months postpartum, like, should I be making major decisions like this now?” She recalled. “But when you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you could take on the world, you could do anything. … And it’s important for me to do this year. It’s important for representation, it’s important for my son to see that.”
Rihanna said the performance will celebrate her 17 years of music, in addition to honoring her birthplace of Barbados and the journey of immigrants like herself.
“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,” she said.
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The singer was noncommittal when it came to questions about releasing new music. Asked how she would describe this current chapter of her career, Rihanna said, “I’m feeling open to exploring, discovering and creating. Things that are new, different, weird—that might not ever makes sense to my fans. I want to just play and have fun with music.”
Rihanna’s most recent releases arrived last year with a pair of singles for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, “Lift Me Up” and “Born Again”. Last month, “Lift Me Up” fetched the singer an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, her first-ever Oscar nod.
Watch Rihanna’s full press conference detailing her 2023 Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show. Tune into the big game on Sunday starting at 6:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
Rihanna Super Bowl half time show news conference
[Video: 9NEWS]
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