Super Bowl helps make Rihanna a multihyphenate gem with many facets
On a random Sunday in September, Rihanna shut down the rumor mill with a simple Instagram post of her outstretched hand holding a football. ● The choice of the “Diamonds” star to stage a spectacle at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, was hardly surprising. The multihyphenate is one of the marquee names at Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label and entertainment firm, and Roc Nation entered into a partnership with the NFL in 2019 to select entertainers to work with the league, most notably for the Super Bowl’s halftime.
Given the anticipation about Rihanna’s next professional moves – her last album arrived in 2016 – the platform will mark the singer’s most visible outing in years.
Fans can hear new Rihanna music before the February football championship, as the singer leads the soundtrack of the film “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” with the first single “Lift Me Up.”
Here is what we know so far about the billionaire singer-designer-actress-business-magnate, born Robyn Fenty, and her music resurrection:
What songs will Rihanna release for the ‘Wakanda Forever’ soundtrack?
Rihanna lends her voice to the movie’s single “Lift Me Up.”
The song, written in collaboration with Tems, Rihanna, Ludwig Göransson and director Ryan Coogler, is a tribute to late actor Chadwick Boseman, who died in 2020 after suiting up as the Black Panther in the 2018 film.
“I wanted to write something that portrays a warm embrace from all the people that I’ve lost in my life. I tried to imagine what it would feel like if I could sing to them now and express how much I miss them,” Tems said in a release. “Rihanna has been an inspiration to me so hearing her convey this song is a great honor.”
What’s different about this year’s Super Bowl halftime show?
Apple Music has taken over the title sponsorship of the prestigious event from Pepsi, which has held the rights since 2013. The change led to immediate swirls of (incorrect) chatter that Taylor Swift, who has maintained sponsorships with competitor Coke at points in her career and released a new album. “Midnights,” on Oct. 21 – would anchor the customary 13-minute performance.
The Rihanna news dropped a couple of days after the Swift rumors began percolating, but it wasn’t the first time a Super Bowl performer has been unveiled early in the NFL season: Last year, the league chose to announce the hip-hop collective of Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige with a late-September blast as well.
Where has Rihanna been?
In May, Rihanna, 34, gave birth to a boy, her first child with beau A$AP Rocky. Though she hasn’t disclosed the name of the baby, fans are speculating that a recent photo of Rihanna with a “D” pendant hanging from her neck provides a hint about the child’s moniker.
Before becoming a mom, Rihanna spent the past several years continuing to build her Fenty Beauty cosmetic brand, which she launched in 2017. Four years later, Forbes estimated her net worth at $1.7 billion – making her the wealthiest female musician in the world – with most of her fortune coming from her line of diverse shades of foundations and lipsticks.
In 2018, Rihanna added to her empire with her Savage X Fenty lingerie line, which Forbes tagged with a valuation of $1 billion.
When will Rihanna release a new album?
Rihanna told Vogue magazine in May that she considers her last release, 2016’s “Anti,” her “best album to this day.” That feeling has seemingly alleviated the pressure for her follow-up, which she said she was looking at “completely differently from the way I had wanted to put it out before. I think this way suits me better, a lot better. It’s authentic; it’ll be fun for me.”
She also scaled the charts in 2016 with “This is What You Came For,” a collaboration with DJ-producer Calvin Harris and “Too Good,” with Drake, while 2017 brought songs with Future (“Selfish”) and Kendrick Lamar (“Loyalty”).
Eager fans tracking Rihanna’s every
sneeze have been thrilled to see recent photos of the singer leaving a Los Angeles recording studio with A$AP Rocky.
But fans shouldn’t read too much into those images – at least not yet. In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Rihanna nixed speculation that her Super Bowl performance would be followed by a new album.
“That’s not true. Super Bowl is one thing. New music is another thing,” she said, adding with a laugh, “Do you hear that, fans?”
What songs might Rihanna perform at the Super Bowl?
The numbers around the Barbadian beauty’s professional output should quell any quibbling that she isn’t deserving of a Super Bowl spotlight: Fourteen No. 1 songs and 31 Top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 throughout her 17-year career.
As for her recognizable hits, well, good luck to Rihanna and her team when culling this heap of possibilities: “Umbrella,” “Don’t Stop the Music,” “SOS,” “Disturbia,” “Rude Boy,” “Only Girl (In the World),” “We Found Love,” “Diamonds,” “Work,” “Needed Me” and “Love on the Brain” are among the major hits that will likely be compressed into a medley to maximize time.
Did Rihanna previously turn down a Super Bowl offer?
Yes. In 2019, when the game was held in Atlanta, the NFL struggled to find performers because many of them – including Rihanna – stood in solidarity with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The athlete became a lightning rod for controversy in 2016 after kneeling during the pregame national anthem to protest social inequality and police brutality.