Rihanna Playing the Super Bowl Halftime Show, NFL Confirms

Rihanna and the NFL confirmed she will perform at the Super Bowl LVII halftime show in February. Minutes after TMZ reported she was in talks to do so, the “Only Girl (In the World)” singer shared a photo of herself holding a football with the NFL logo visible on Instagram. The NFL later confirmed the news on Twitter by retweeting Rihanna and Roc Nation.

Sources told TMZ early Sunday that the NFL and Roc Nation were in talks to have Rihanna headline the Super Bowl halftime show. Although Rihanna has more than enough hits to fill a 15-minute halftime show setlist, sources told TMZ there have been discussions with another performer to join her. Rihanna’s long list of hits includes “Diamonds,” “S&M,” “We Found Love,” “Rude Boy,” and “Where Have You Been.”

Rihanna is a Roc Nation artist and Jay-Z will be back as co-producer. Although she has not released a completely new album since ANTI in 2016, Rihanna has been teasing new music for years. She has never lost a foothold in pop culture though, as she still leads the cosmetics brand Fenty Beauty and LVMH’s Fenty fashion house. In 2021, she was also named a National Hero of Barbados on the country’s first day as a parliamentary republic.

The NFL reportedly approached Rihanna to be the halftime show act in 2019, but she turned them down to show support for Colin Kaepernick. “I just couldn’t be a sellout,” she told Vogue in October 2019. “I couldn’t be an enabler. There’s 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.” Maroon 5, Big Boi, and Travis Scott performed instead.

There had been speculation that Taylor Swift would perform the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show, but sources told TMZ last week she turned them down. She reportedly does not want to headline a Super Bowl halftime show until she is finished re-recording all of her first six albums. So far, she has only re-recorded Red and Fearless. She still needs to finish Taylor Swift, 1989, Speak Now, and Reputation. If she can complete that in a year, she could headline the 2024 show.

Super Bowl LVII will be held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, which last hosted a Super Bowl in 2015. The game will be broadcast on Fox on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023. The halftime show will be notable as the first one with Apple Music as the sponsor. The past 10 halftime shows had Pepsi as the main sponsor.