Rihanna has explained why she performed at the Super Bowl despite her objections.
While speaking to Vogue for an interview published on Wednesday, the Diamonds singer addressed performing at the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show after previously turning down the NFL’s 2018 invitation to play on ethical grounds.
Rihanna told Vogue in a 2019 interview, “There’s things within that organisation that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way.”
The organisation approached her again “a few weeks before” she was announced as the big game’s headliner, “and I kept putting off my answer,” she recalled.
The singer detailed what changed her mind in her 15 February interview, saying, “There’s still a lot of mending to be done in my eyes… but it’s powerful to break those doors, and have representation at such a high, high level and a consistent level.”
Referencing last year’s headliners - Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J Blige, and Kendrick Lamar - she continued, “Two Superbowls back-to-back… you know, representing the urban community, globally. It is powerful. It sends a really strong message.”
Welcoming her first child in May 2022 with rapper ASAP Rocky also shifted the Barbadian singer's perspective.
“Raising a young Black man is one of the scariest responsibilities in life,” Rihanna shared. “You’re like, ‘What am I leaving my kids to? This is the planet they’re gonna be living on?’”
She concluded, “All of those things really start to hit differently.”
Source: © Cover Media
