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Moments after Rihanna walked off stage midway through Super Bowl LVII Sunday night at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., her rep confirmed what her performance had suggested. : pregnant singer with a second child.

That is, as pregnancy revealed, not quite on a theatrical level Beyoncé rubs her belly at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards. But for Rihanna, who I gave birth to my first child last yearanyway it’s a performance savvy – perhaps the only gesture that can shine more light and reframe the performance she just put on.

Rihanna hasn’t released an album since “Anti” in 2016, and many in her diehard fanbase assumed she was ready to perform at this year’s Super Bowl as a sign that her return to music could be imminent. go out. Maybe she’ll announce a new single or album, or maybe a tour.

Instead, she used one of pop music’s biggest stages to assert that despite all that collective expectations, she has other things to focus on: her private life. to return. So if her actual on-stage delivery is a bit tiring, well, there are more important things to focus on.

In 13 minutes, Rihanna improvised 12 hits, songs that are famous around the world, without requiring much pomp or pomp. The last time she reached her frenzied, brash, authoritative, bubbly state came a little after the halfway point of the set.

Rihanna doesn’t put too much emphasis on movement, instead, she focuses on her dancers.Credit…AJ Mast for The New York Times

Immediately after the familiar trumpet combination of “All of the Lights” sounded from the speakers, Rihanna used her right hand to take a compact box from the outstretched hand of one of her dancers, apply two coats of powder – a nod to Fenty Beauty, which has been a larger professional focus for her than music in recent years – and returned it before snatching the microphone with her left hand from another dancer.

She then began working on “All of the Lights,” a collaboration of more than a decade with Ye (formerly Kanye West), whose anti-Semitic remarks late last year. make him a pariah. She followed that song straight away with “Run This Town,” another collaboration with Ye (and Jay-Z).

A quick cosmetic ad? Sure. An implicit statement of support for a co-worker? Why not. Rihanna – one of the key pop hit artists of the 21st century – needs the Super Bowl less than the Super Bowl needs her, and her performance is a master at doing it precisely enough. She treats it like many people approach their professional obligations when their personal lives are calling: serious, slightly enthusiastic, slightly exhausted, finding ways to tackle the angles in a way. lightly.

The Queen of Indifference, Rihanna made her first appearance on Sunday night on a stage hovering above the 50-yard line (a gesture taken from Ye’s 2016 Saint Pablo tourism) sang “Bitch Better Have My Money.” She’s strapped to the platform, limiting her mobility, but even when landing, she doesn’t put too much emphasis on choreography, instead keeping a solid court in the center of more than 100 dance moves. public, sharing their movements but never outperforming them. In “Working,” she guides them as if she were a tutor pointing out the moves but not participating in them.

Rihanna’s hits are plentiful — she’s been on the Billboard Hot 100 more than 60 times — and they’re varied. But there’s no real theme to this random rendition of dozens of deeply loved songs. Mostly, she leans towards the high tempo in her category – “Where Have You Been,” “The Only Girl (in the World)” – with a nod to her Caribbean heritage in “Work.” ” and “Rude Boy”. At the end of the film, she emphasizes her panoramas, her one-word titles, “Umbrella” and “Diamonds”, prioritizing the sentimental genre over the sensational.

Rihanna is many things – a new mom, a fashion and cosmetics billionaire, an amazingly relatable pop star with a deep catalog. But she is not a current hitmaker. And she hasn’t done a show of this size since 2016.

So in her marketing, the Super Bowl amplified how it was a coup to hit her most obvious attempt in years. In the promotional teasers, Apple Music’s Ebro Darden explicitly emphasized, “Wait. Is almost. Via.”

In essence, the event is her appearance. Events are events. There were no guests, despite the frequency and strength of her collaborations. No outfit changes, even though she’s a fashion innovator – she wears an all-red outfit, removing and adding layers throughout.

Rihanna performed her part on a floating stage in the field.Credit…AJ Mast for The New York Times

The performance was brief and rushed, but still felt slow. There is little variation in tone or energy, no aesthetic emphasis on the gently themed set list. It’s a routine designed to activate long-honed pleasure centers, not ignite new frenzy – a triumph of a foregone conclusion.

Rihanna’s outright appearance is a testament to the ways the NFL has succeeded in reporting – or performing – beyond its controversies. She turned down performing at the Super Bowl in 2019, an era when turning down a gig on one of the world’s biggest stages – a throwback to the NFL’s response to activism by Colin Kaepernick – political. But the participation of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation with Tournament in the following years reworked the mid-circle performance both musically and socio-culturally.

From an entertainment perspective, that’s for the best. And for Rihanna, playing during halftime is a milestone that fits her range of achievements. But her performance wasn’t openly political, or even specifically celebrating her hits. Instead, it serves as a placeholder. She’s coming to perform, yes. But she also has more pressing things to attend to.

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