Four years since her last live performance, seven since her last studio album, Rihanna wasted no time to make a statement during her return to the stage at the Super Bowl half-time show. There was no entrance montage to her set, no musical build-up; we opened close up on Rihanna’s face, chin down as if readying for battle, her presence after years of pop music absentia an exclamation point unto itself. Dressed in a fittingly bold red suit, the Barbadian singer commanded a floating stage perched scarily high above the field, launched into a hard kickoff of her discography with Bitch Better Have My Money, and with one sweep of her hand over her belly, seemingly announced her second pregnancy just nine months after the birth of her son.
Such is the power of Rihanna, a mega-celebrity whose charisma and famously relaxed charm (and successful fashion and beauty businesses) have carried her through a long musical hiatus and at times overshadowed her extensive catalog of hits. Her halftime show capitalized on her reputation as being unbothered and effortlessly cool – no musical guest, barely any choreography, no stress or strenuousness, a possible huge pop culture news drop as a casual aside. (Her publicist has since confirmed the pregnancy.) At times she seemed a half beat behind her army of white-clad, hard-elbowed backup dancers. She floated, at certain points literally (and seemingly without fear of heights) above the expectations of an all-gas, no-brakes half-time show, with a detachment that could read as admirable self-possession or as frustrating boredom.
