RIHANNA

WHEN RIHANNA REVEALED SHE WAS PREGNANT WITH BABY NUMBER TWO DURING HER SUPER BOWL HALFTIME PERFORMANCE, THERE WAS MUCH TO BE EXCITED ABOUT. FIRST OF ALL, IT WAS QUITE THE PREGNANCY ANNOUNCEMENT— ON ONE OF THE WORLD’S BIGGEST STAGES, WEARING CUSTOM LOEWE AND ALAÏA, ABOUT TO BRING THE HOUSE DOWN.

Of course, it also meant that Rihanna’s adorable family with A$AP Rocky was once again growing. But, possibly most enticing of all, it meant we would get another dose of Rihanna maternity style. During her last pregnancy, the singer proved that no baby bump would keep her from those best dressed lists. We shouldn’t have expected anything else this time around. On Saturday night, Rihanna stepped out for dinner at Langosteria Bistrot in Milan with Rocky and, of course, she looked stylish as always.

For the occasion, the singer wore a melon-colored, satin halter neck dress from LaPointe spring 2023. Rihanna paired the feminine number with custom strappy snakeskin Manolo Blahnik heels, but this is Ri we’re talking about, and she had to add some edge to the look. She did so with the help of a white fur-covered Tom Ford-era Gucci bag featuring two jewel-encrusted dragon heads on the front, and a rusted orange bomber jacket on top from the recently launched Italian-based brand PDF.

Half Time Return To The Spotlight

The queen of nonchalance, Rihanna first appeared during the Super Bowl Half Time on a stage floating above the

50-yard line singing “Bitch Better Have My Money.” She was tethered to the platform, limiting her maneuvering, but even when she reached the ground she didn’t overemphasize dance, instead holding sturdy court at the center of 100-plus dancers, sharing in their movements but never outdoing them. During “Work,” she led them as if she were a tutor calling out moves but not participating in them.

Rihanna’s hits are plentiful — she has charted more than 60 times on the Billboard Hot 100 — and they are varied. But there was no true thematic through line to this casual revue of a dozen deeply beloved songs. Mostly, she leaned into the up-tempo side of her catalog — “Where Have You Been,” “Only Girl (in the World)” — with nods to her Caribbean heritage on “Work” and “Rude Boy.” At the set’s end, she emphasized her big-picture, one-word-title smashes, “Umbrella” and “Diamonds,” which prioritize melodrama over feeling.

Rihanna is many things — a new mother, a billionaire mogul in fashion and cosmetics, an astonishingly reliable pop star with a deep catalog. But she is not a current hitmaker. And she had not performed a show of this scale since 2016.

Oscar Performance

Coming up next, the ‘Umbrella’ singer is set to perform in another prestigious event: the 95th Edition of the Academy Awards. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that Rihanna will be performing the song “Lift Me Up” from the movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever during the Oscars ceremony on March 12th.

This year’s Academy Awards has nominated ‘Lift Me Up,’ a song from the movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, for Best Original Song. The song was co-written by Rihanna, Tems (Temilade Openiyi), Ludwig Göransson, and the film’s director Ryan Coogler. This is Rihanna’s first nomination for an Academy Award.

Yes, the seven floating stages during Rihanna’s Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show were theatrical and cool, but they also had a very practical purpose. And it had everything to do with the grass on the field.

That’s according to Bruce Rodgers, the halftime show production designer, who spoke to Wired about helping to create the show prior to the performance.

Rodgers explained that when it came to the LED lit stages that elevated off the field for Rihanna and her dancers, it had “never been done before.”

“With Katy Perry, we flew her around in a flying device, like a rocket ship,” he said. “But this one is a totally different animal.”

Rodgers said he came up with the concept and worked with Rihanna’s team, which included designer Willo Perron, choreographer Parris Goebel, and production manager Joseph Lloyd, to implement it.

By having the singer and the other performers in the air, it took the stress off of the turf on the field that at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, is 100,000 square feet of Tifway 419 hybrid Bermuda grass.

Grass is very important to the National Football League as it can affect how the players are able to function on the field.

And while it may have looked risky for Rihanna, who debuted her new baby bump during her performance, to be suspended on a stage 15-60 feet off the ground, according to the report, the stages had “massive Brunel trusses” that Rodgers assured Rihanna’s team are “strong enough to ‘carry a freight train.’”

“This will be, in my opinion, the most technically advanced Super Bowl halftime show that’s ever been done because of the amount of tech used to move the platforms,” Aaron Siebert, the project lead from Tait Towers, which made the platforms, told the publication prior to the show.