Ever since Monday morning, I have heard all the buzz about the amazing, talented, iconic, and wonderful Miss Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show. If you missed the performance, first off, do you live under a rock? Secondly, here’s a slight recap of what you missed as well as some opinions on the performance.

This performance was definitely quite the comeback due to the fact that we haven’t seen Rihanna perform in quite some time. Right when her performance began, there were only two words to describe the feeling—anxiety and shock. The anxiety came from the fact that she was standing on a piece of square glass dangling from the top of the stadium. Then, BAM…lights hit her, and your eyes are immediately drawn towards her stomach. As most of you already guessed during the performance, yes, she was/is indeed pregnant.

I know most of us were expecting a top tier performance leaving every single one of us in tears; however, you have to give her the benefit of the doubt since she is in fact carrying a second human inside of her. Personally, I enjoyed the performance, but everyone has different opinions.

Amaya Faison ’26 shared, “I thought that Rihanna’s performance during the Super Bowl was very entertaining and somewhat unexpected. She came out with a baby bump, and I know no one saw it coming until she started her opening song.”

Although our eyes were drawn towards Rihanna the entire time, her dancers on the side were a huge factor in the performance. The dancers wore an all white, thick, and puffy outfit depicting the image of a fluffy marshmallow. Let’s see what Danielle Pirnat ’25 had to say about the backup dancers: “I think the backup dancers were good, and they definitely looked like little marshmallows. Rihanna ate, as expected. The songs were good, but sometimes her dancing looked a little funky.”

Now, we all know about Rihanna’s famous makeup brand, Fenty Beauty. Everyone loves Fenty, and if you’ve never tried any of her products, run to your local Sephora or Ulta immediately. Even though this performance was dedicated to her singing her greatest hits, she still found a way to promote her makeup brand. This moment was very clever if you ask me, and Amber Lizardi ’23 felt the same way: “For a second, I forgot I was watching a football game and felt like I was at a Rihanna concert instead. Promoting her makeup brand during the performance was the perfect marketing strategy coming from someone who is a proud owner of a few Fenty Beauty products.”

There were so many iconic moments in her performance including a close-up section of her dancing with some of the backup dancers, her singing “Diamonds” while all the flashlights in the stadium went off, and when she basically ascended into the air singing on a giant, squared glass box dangling from the top of the stadium. Rihanna clearly has no fear of heights.

Finally, there was lots of talk about Rihanna possibly bringing out a special guest. Rihanna had multiple opportunities to bring out different guests especially in “Run This Town” and “All of the Lights.” I know we were maybe expecting Jay-Z. Kanye might’ve been too controversial to bring out as a special guest.

Overall, Rihanna didn’t really need to bring out anyone because she stole the show herself. She served in her all red, chic outfit, and her voice was quite angelic. Will next year’s performance top RiRi’s iconic comeback performance?