Rihanna Reveals Pregnancy During Super Bowl Halftime Show

Rihanna+performing+at+the+Super+Bowl+LVII+Halftime+Show.

Kevin Mazur (Getty Images)

Rihanna performing at the Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show.

Sunday night was Super Bowl LVII, with the Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Philadelphia Eagles at the State Farm Stadium in Arizona. The game was undoubtedly exciting, but a lot of people were really just there for the main event: Rihanna’s Halftime show. Rihanna announced her performance with a trailer that was released on Apple Music’s YouTube channel about a month ago. This was enough to get all of her fans pumped and anticipatory about what songs she was to perform at the game.

At halftime, Rihanna appeared on stage decked in all red, standing on a floating platform. She was flanked on both sides by her warmly dressed backup dancers and sang the opening lines of her smash hit, “B***h Better Have My Money”, as the crowd roared a welcoming to her. She had a visible baby bump, which many assumed was her postpartum belly from her first son she had in May with A$AP Rocky. Though, Rihanna made several nods about being pregnant as she performed, wearing her outfit unzipped and rubbing her stomach. This subtle announcement had fans at home and in the stadium talking amongst themselves, wondering if she could be pregnant for a second time, and sources confirmed that the couple was indeed expecting another child. This historic performance made Rihanna the first person to perform at the Halftime Show while pregnant.

Rihanna performed 12 songs during her almost 14-minute set, finishing the show with her 2012 hit, “Diamonds,” as fireworks shot off above the State Farm Stadium. “The setlist was the biggest challenge. That was the hardest part — deciding how to maximize 13 minutes, but also celebrate. That’s what the show’s going to be — it’s going to be a celebration of my catalog in the best way,” she told The Hollywood Reporter before her big performance. Rihanna narrowed down her lengthy discography to a mashup of these 12 hits:

1. “B—- Better Have My Money”

2. “Where Have You Been”

3. “Only Girl (In The World)”

4. “We Found Love”

5. “Rude Boy”

6. “Work”

7. “Wild Thoughts”

8. “Pour It Up”

9. “All of the Lights”

10. “Run This Town”

11. “Umbrella”

12. “Diamonds”

The crowd couldn’t help but scream along to every lyric, and the show seemed to go by in the blink of an eye. As for the theatrics, Rihanna’s Halftime Show mainly consisted of well-choreographed dancing and the incorporation of rising and falling platforms on which she and her dancers performed. Rihanna was dancing along an impressive amount, despite her pregnancy. Another notable part of her performance is when she stopped to reapply her makeup, presumably with that of her own brand, Fenty Beauty, the same brand that made her America’s youngest self-made female billionaire in 2022.

Despite Rihanna’s Halftime Show being the most-watched halftime show of all time, no one on the Chiefs saw the show live, says quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Chiefs coach Andy Reid told his players, “If you go out to watch the performance, just keep walking, because you’re not playing the rest of the game,” according to Mahomes. The Chiefs needed to keep their heads in the game and overcome their 10-point deficit to beat the Eagles. When they came out of the locker room after Rihanna’s performance, it was clear Reid was onto something because they scored another 24 points and took home the Super Bowl, winning 38-35. Rihanna’s performance probably would have been too mind-altering for the players, so it’s a good thing they sacrificed seeing a once-in-a-lifetime performance to give themselves a fighting chance at beating the Eagles.