Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show has sparked some complaints (Picture: John Angelillo/ UPI/ Shutterstock)
Rihanna may have set the internet ablaze using the Super Bowl to announce she was pregnant, but it seems some watching along at home thought her performance was anything but family friendly.
Last week the superstar headed back on stage for the first time in five years, smashing out a medley of her greatest hits like We Found Love, Rude Boy and Diamonds, in an epic 13-minute set that also began with a subtle nod to her growing baby bump.
While seeing the singer back with a bang left many in awe, some people have made it clear they didn’t like what they saw.
Perhaps more interested in the actual sporting game, which saw the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles in Glendale, Arizona, over 100 people have complained about her set.
It’s now been reported that 103 complaints were made to the Federal Communications Commission, a United States agency which regulates television, regarding the Super Bowl broadcast, with almost all of them relating to the halftime show.
Many of the complaints saw people claim Rihanna’s performance was ‘too big on sex’, according to TMZ.
Some people weren’t too happy with her dancers either (Picture: Dave Shopland/Shutterstock)
While some said the lyrics and choreography were too sexualised, others went so far as to compare it to porn.
One viewer from Utah said that the show was ‘so indecent I had to turn off the TV because of the pornographic content’.
Meanwhile, others across the country seemed to have been clutching their pearls over the ‘overtly sexual dancing’ and song content they claimed was heavy on sexual content.
Although Rihanna, who is pregnant with her second child with partner A$AP Rocky, didn’t do very strenuous dancing on stage, many people called out her background dancers who apparently made gestures that were ‘patently offensive and completely inappropriate for children’.
However, one complainant in Florida did take aim at the singer herself, who they said ‘spread her a*** cheek at the crack’ and ‘rubbed her pants where her labia were three times’.
Comparisons were also made to Sam Smith’s Grammys performance (Picture: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
Unsurprisingly, comparisons were also made to issues people also held with Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ recent Grammy’s performance, with someone in California bringing religion into their argument.
‘I don’t care what someone worships but children shouldn’t be exposed to pornography and as an adult I don’t wish to see it…where has decency gone? How about respect for others and self?,’ they wrote.
However, while there were people who took issue with what they saw on screen, the complaints pale in comparison to another Super Bowl halftime show—Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson’s infamous performance back in 2004.
At that time, the wardrobe malfunction that unfolded sparked a massive response, with the FCC overwhelmed with a huge 540,000 complaints.
Despite the criticism, Rihanna is taking it all on her stride, and has been busy celebrating her birthday this week, and preparing for her next big gig- performing at the Oscars.
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Next month she will give her first live performance of Lift Up Me, the ballad she recorded for the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.
The track is also nominated for best original song.
Metro.co.uk has contacted representatives for Rihanna.
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Some even compared it to porn.
