Rihanna Runs This Town! Everything to Know About the Super Bowl 2023 Halftime Show
We found love on a Halftime stage.
The 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show was a party thanks to headliner Rihanna.
Her mentor Jay-Z's Roc Nation is a partner in producing the Halftime Show, so it was likely only a matter of time before RiRi took the stage. Hov said in a statement announcing her performance, “Rihanna is a generational talent, a woman of humble beginnings who has surpassed expectations at every turn. A person born on the small island of Barbados who became one of the most prominent artists ever. Self-made in business and entertainment.”
The 2023 Halftime Show was the first in a decade to not be sponsored by Pepsi, with Apple Music taking the reins for Super Bowl LVII. Here's everything to know about the Super Bowl 2023 Halftime Show.
Related: B***h Better Have Her Money! How Rihanna Became a Billionaire
Who were the Super Bowl 2023 Halftime Show performers?
Rihanna was the headliner of the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show and performed the entire set solo, save for her dancers, who did most of the heavy lifting in terms of choreography.
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Is Rihanna doing the Super Bowl 2023?
Yes, the Good Girl Gone Bad performed at the Super Bowl in 2023! “We are thrilled to welcome Rihanna to the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show stage,” Seth Dudowsky, NFL Head of Music said in a statement announcing her performance. “Rihanna is a once-in-a-generation artist who has been a cultural force throughout her career. We look forward to collaborating with Rihanna, Roc Nation and Apple Music to bring fans another historic Halftime Show performance.”
Related: Rihanna's Style Through the Years
When is the Super Bowl 2023 date?
The Super Bowl was held on Feb. 12, 2023.
What time was the Super Bowl 2023 Halftime Show?
The Super Bowl 2023 Halftime Show is always at the midway point through Super Bowl LVII. This year's Halftime Show started at approximately 8:30 p.m. EST. Rihanna confirmed her Halftime Show performance will be 13 minutes long.
Has Rihanna performed at the Super Bowl?
The Super Bowl LVII was the first time Rihanna has performed a Super Bowl Halftime Show. She revealed in a 2019 interview with Vogue that she turned down offers to perform the Super Bowl Halftime Show previously over the NFL's treatment of Colin Kaepernick for kneeling in protest of police brutality against people of color.
"I couldn’t dare do that. For what? Who gains from that? Not my people," she said. "I just couldn’t be a sellout. 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."
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What Rihanna songs did she perform at the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show?
Rihanna has a whopping 14 No. 1 hits and 31 top 10 hits, so there were a lot of songs to choose from for her Super Bowl Halftime Show performance. She played a medley of the following songs, in order:
"What's My Name"
"B**ch Betta Have My Money"
"Where Have You Been"
"Only Girl in the World"
"We Found Love"
"S&M"
"Rude Boy"
"Work"
"Wild Thoughts"
"Pour It Up"
"All of the Lights"
"Run This Town"
"Umbrella"
"Diamonds"
Rihanna gave a preview of what to expect from her Super Bowl Halftime Show on Instagram on Jan. 13, 2023. In a clip, Rihanna is seen telling the viewer "Shh" while voiceovers comment on how long it's been since her last full-length studio album, Anti, dropped. This could mean she may debut some new tunes during her Halftime performance. The clip ends with a snippet of "Needed Me," which wasn't part of the set.
Why isn't there a Taylor Swift Super Bowl Halftime Show?
Because the Super Bowl Halftime Show was sponsored by Pepsi for a decade, Taylor Swift wasn't an option to perform, having had a longstanding partnership with Diet Coke. Sources told TMZ that without the Pepsi obstacle, Swift still doesn't want to do the Halftime Show until she finishes re-recording all of her previous albums.
