Rihanna's Super Bowl 2023 Halftime Show

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About

Rihanna's Super Bowl 2023 Halftime Show refers to the announcement that Rihanna is set to make her return to the stage at the Super Bowl 2023 after being confirmed as the headliner for the halftime show. The news generated memes about the possibility of the singer promoting her make-up and lingerie products from the Fenty Beauty company.

Background

On September 25th, 2022, The NFL confirmed that Rihanna will headline the Super Bowl halftime show on February 12th, 2023. The singer announced the performance on Twitter^[1] with a post holding a football with the NLF logo (see below).

This is the first time in years Rihanna has announced something related to her music career, as she hasn't released an album since 2016, after focusing on her makeup brand Fenty Beauty^[3] and welcoming her first baby, a boy with her boyfriend A$AP Rocky in May 2022.

Developments

Rihanna's Super Bowl performance on February 13th, 2023 impressed viewers and fans, leading to funny memes about aspects of her show, like the singer's ASL interpreter, Justina Miles, dancing while Rihanna is singing throughout the show. The TikTok^[7] account @sbsnews_au shared a clip of Miles, which received 646,600 plays and 49,800 likes in one day (seen below).

The singer promoting her beauty line during the show was also a trending topic on social media. TikTok^[8] user @stuartbrazell shared a meme on TikTok showing the moment Rihanna adjusted her make-up during the performance. The video garnered 1.1 million plays and 23,800 likes in one day (seen below).

The floating stage for Rihanna's performance also became a meme as Twitter^[9] user @pattymo noticed how similar it was to the Nintendo game Super Smash Brothers. The post received 296,200 likes and 58,500 retweets in a day (seen below).

Rihanna Pregnancy Announcement

On February 12th, 2023, the singer revealed her second pregnancy during her performance. The news generated several memes on social media, like @queenlotusmarie's TikTok^[11] video (below, left) of her reaction to Rihanna's showing her baby belly during the performance. Posted on February 13th, the video received 13.2 million plays and 2.8 million likes in 13 hours. TikTok^[12] user @lukefranchina (see below, right) shared a reaction to the pregnancy being announced instead of a new album, receiving 3.3 million plays and 632,300 likes in 13 hours.

Online Presence

The announcement trended on Twitter and other social media, as long-time fans of the singer shared their feelings about it, like "How come the football players get to go to Rihanna's concert and I don't?" as @selahspades^[2] commented on this September 25th, 2022 tweet, which received 59,000 likes and 4,000 retweets in two days.

Some fans were so surprised to see that Rihanna went back to being a singer that they're speculating as to whether or not she can remember her own lyrics. The below tweet by Twitter^[10] user @ohhhhherewego jokes about this. The tweet, posted on September 26th, 2022, received 325,000 likes and 45,000 retweets in one day.

Twitter user @sbstryker demanded the singer to bring Tom Holland as a dancer to perform "Umbrella" with her, as his 2017 performance at the Lip Sync Battle show became very popular on social media. The Twitter^[4] post had 154,000 likes and 23,000 retweets in two days since posted on September 25th, 2022.

NFL = National Fenty League

One of the memes being created about the singer's performance during the Super Bowl halftime show is the widely-held and parodied belief that she would promote her Fenty Beauty products during the performance; in fact, the NFL even changed its bio on Instagram to "National Fenty League" after the announcement. This Twitter^[6] post by @itsayosigns on September 25th, 2022 shows the singer at the stadium alongside a shelf of her make-up products. The tweet received 422,000 likes and 62,000 retweets in two days.