Rihanna will be performing at the Super Bowl Halftime show this year (Picture: Getty)
Rihanna has teased her upcoming Super Bowl Halftime show, revealing the poignancy behind saying yes to the opportunity.
The Umbrella singer, 34, has famously taken a back seat with her music career over the last few years, focusing instead on her Fenty beauty empire and Savage lingerie lines.
Since releasing Anti in 2016, she also went on to welcome her first child, a baby boy with boyfriend A$AP Rocky, and has recently nabbed her first ever Oscar nomination.
Sunday marks her return to the stage and she is doing it in style, performing at Apple Music’s hugely anticipated Super Bowl Halftime show in Glendale, Arizona, as the Kansas City Chiefs taken on the Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaking in a press conference ahead of the performance, she explained that the opportunity came at the perfect time.
‘I’ve been so focused on the Super Bowl that I totally forgot my birthday is coming up, I forgot about Valentine’s Day,’ she told Nadeska. ‘I’m just like, “Super Bowl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl!”
‘We’re excited to do the Super Bowl. We’ve been working on it for a while and every day it gets closer to the finished product.
‘It feels like it could have only been now. When I first got the call to do it again this year, I was like: “Are you sure? I’m three months postpartum, should I be making major decisions like this right now? I might regret this.”
‘When you become a mom, there’s something that happens where you feel like you can take on the world, you can do anything. The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world so… As scary as that was, because I haven’t been on stage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all.
‘It’s important for me to do this this year, it’s important for representation. It’s important for my son to see that.’
Ri teased a 13-minute long set full of her most iconic songs (Picture: Getty)
This marks Rihanna’s return to the stage for the first time in years (Picture: Getty)
RiRi remained coy over what exactly fans could expect from the show, but confessed that there are ’39 versions’ of the set list floating around.
She shared that whittling her huge back catalog – of eight albums and many, many bangers – was the trickiest part, but insisted that it would be a ‘celebration’ of her work so far.
However, she said that the physicality of putting the show together has been taking a ‘toll’, especially after giving birth.
‘At the end of the day, if it flops or it flies, my name has to stand by that. So, I really get involved with every aspect of anything that I do,’ she continued.
‘The physical challenge has definitely been immense, for many reasons. I haven’t done this for a minute.
‘Trying to put a two-hour set in 13 minutes… You’re going to see on Sunday, from the time it starts, it just never ends.
‘It’s a jam-packed show and it takes a toll on your body.’
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Rihanna also stated that becoming a mother had changed her outlook on work, as she has learned to re-prioritize things that she takes on.
‘It’s very different,’ she added of balancing her work and family life. ‘The balance is almost impossible because no matter how you look at it, work is always something that is going to rob you of time with your child.
‘That’s the currency now. That’s where it goes. The magnitude of how much it weighs. When you make decisions on what you’re going to say yes to, it has to be worth it.’
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She’s hitting the stage on Sunday!
