Rihanna, 'surprise guest' deliver perfect Super Bowl halftime show

By Charlotte Wilder
Updated Feb. 13, 2023 12:52 a.m. ET

There are a few precious people in this world who are diamonds. They’re the kind of people who are so compelling that you can’t look away when the light hits them. And even when it doesn’t, you know they’re still shining, emitting their own light source from within. 

Rihanna is one of those people. 

"You and I, you and I, we're like diamonds in the sky," she sang as she ended what would immediately become a legendary Super Bowl halftime show. Rihanna stood on a platform rising up high above the field of Arizona's State Farm Stadium. She looked like she was alone. 

But she wasn’t. 

The "surprise guest" she had teased in an interview with Nate Burleson? It was her unborn child, as her rep confirmed on Sunday night. 

So, Rihanna not only performed solo for the first time in seven years, she did so on the biggest stage the world has to offer, and she did it pregnant. It was exactly a year to the day that she announced she was pregnant with her first child. 

Even just typing that out I have chills. It’s hard enough for women to reach the point where they can perform the halftime show by themselves, but to do so pregnant? It’s an unfathomably big deal. 

Moreover, Rihanna killed it. She captivated in a striking red outfit that she wore the entire time. That's right, no fancy wardrobe changes and no appearances from celebrity artists. Just Rihanna up there, surrounded by dancers who looked like they were wearing a combination of a hazmat's and astronaut’s suit. She didn’t dance much (which I’m assuming was to protect her baby), but it was still impossible to take your eyes off her. 

For 13 minutes, we were living in a futuristic, dystopian universe where Rihanna was our overlord and everything was going to be OK. 

I also cannot overstate how good she sounded: Her voice came from the deepest parts of her soul. The show itself was smooth and satisfying. The camerawork was innovative, with overhead and tracking shots that kept the focus squarely on Rihanna and the talent she has honed over the course of her life. The entire thing was mesmerizing, straightforward and everything we came for — subtly electric.  

Like many millennials my age, Rihanna was the soundtrack to my life through high school, college and my 20s. Her music is an emotional time capsule at this point, since she hasn’t come out with an album since 2016’s "Anti." That record — and most of her others — is still in my regular listening rotation, but each song is frozen in time, connected to the memories I made when I heard them for the first time. 

And I didn’t quite realize that until Sunday night. To see Rihanna performing, finally, after so many years, unearthed all of those moments and feelings connected to her songs. I was surprised to find myself choked up. They were the same songs I remembered, but the music — like the artist herself — evolved as she sang them again. 

In a 2015 interview, Rihanna said she was still looking for a man who wasn’t threatened by her power. 

She seems to have found him in her partner and the father of her children, fellow musician A$AP Rocky. Rihanna is now, like most of us her age, in an entirely different era from the time when she recorded these songs. She’s grown up with us. 

And she knows who she is. She opened with "B---- Better Have My Money," an apt song for an unpaid show. In addition to that and "Diamonds," she sang "Where Have You Been?," "Only Girl in the World," "We Found Love," "Rude Boy," "Work," "Wild Thoughts," "Pour It Up," "All of the Lights," "Run This Town" and "Umbrella."

Her performance reminded me — even though this fact is hard to forget — that there is no such thing as a bad Rihanna song. Her setlist consisted of banger after banger. It was pure gold coming from one of the most famous women in the world who has managed to protect her privacy and remain elusive. There is no one like her. 

Earlier this week, I ranked the top 10 halftime shows of all time. And I said that soon, the list would be obsolete, because Rihanna was sure to upend it. 

She did. She gave me chills the way Prince — the best to ever do it — did. Both artists have a calm, quiet confidence that says, I don’t have to prove anything to anyone, because I am so obviously unlike anything else you have ever seen.

The fact that she did it pregnant? Words fail me. To quote the woman herself, "that was quite a show." She shone brighter than she ever has — a diamond, indeed.

Charlotte Wilder is a general columnist for FOX Sports. She's honored to represent the constantly neglected Boston area in sports media, loves talking to sports fans about their feelings and is happiest eating a hotdog in a ballpark or nachos in a stadium. Follow her on Twitter at @TheWilderThings.

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