Rihanna will be the headline performer at next year’s Super Bowl halftime show in February 2023, the National Football League (NFL) has announced.
The 34-year-old singer and businesswoman will take top billing at perhaps the biggest single musical performance in America, joining fellow pop titans such as Lady Gaga, Beyonce, and Madonna.
“Rihanna is a generational talent, a woman of humble beginnings who has surpassed expectations at every turn,” said Jay-Z, whose company Roc Nation is one of the producers of the show, on Sunday.
“A person born on the small island of Barbados who became one of the most prominent artists ever. Self-made in business and entertainment.”
Rihanna, known off stage as Robyn Rihanna Fenty, previously declined an offer to perform at the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, who has been unsigned by any American football team since his on-pitch protests against racial injustice in 2016.
Not long before the announcement on Sunday evening, Rihann had revved up fans’ excitement by posting an image of her hand holding an American football on Twitter.
Seth Dudowsky, the NFL’s head of music, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Rihanna to the Super Bowl halftime show stage… to bring fans another historic Halftime Show performance.”
The NFL is partnering with Apple Music to produce the halftime show, which will be held on 12 Fberuary 2023 in Glendale, Arizona.
Since her rise to stardom in the mid-Noughties, Rihanna has expanded beyond music into film acting and the cosmetics business, becoming the first Black woman to run a luxury brand for the French fashion giant LVMH.
