Rihanna was pregnant with her second child as she performed her Super Bowl halftime show Sunday.
The singer’s representative confirmed the pregnancy shortly after she ended her 13-minute set at Super Bowl 57. She hovered high at times as she performed a number of hits including “We Found Love,” “Diamonds” and “Work” during a halftime break between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
The baby bump that was visible in the tight clothes she wore under her baggy red jumpsuit set off a wave of social media speculation that she might be pregnant again.
Rihanna, 34, has a 9-month-old son with rapper A$AP Rocky.
During her media preview Thursday, Rihanna said she was initially unsure about taking on the challenge of performing during a time when she was three months postpartum and wondered “should I be making major decisions like this right now? I might regret this.”
“But when you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you can take on the world, you can do anything,” Rihanna said. “The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages of the world. As scary as that was, because I hadn’t been on stage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all.”
Rihanna said had to figure out how to fit some of her biggest songs into her 13-minute set.
“The setlist was the biggest challenge,” she said. “That was the hardest, hardest part. Deciding how to maximize 13 minutes but also celebrate — that’s what this show is going to be. It’s going to be a celebration of my catalog in the best way that we could have put it together.′
A nine-time Grammy Award-winner, Rihanna has 14 No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits, including “We Found Love,” “Work,” “Umbrella” and “Disturbia.”
More an avant garde dance piece than a concert, the Barbadian superstar, dressed in a bright red jumpsuit, plowed through 12 of her hits in 13 minutes surrounded by dozens of androgynous dancers dressed in white who mirrored nearly every move she made on and off the giant stage at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
In case anyone was confused, this was all about Rihanna. No special guests. No breaks. No momentum shifts. From her start on a platform suspended above the stage, to powerfully belting out the inspirational “Diamonds,” she kept a tight grip on everyone’s attention by performing one smash hit after another, from “Work” to “Umbrella.”
It was fully her vision — polished, yet playful – and completely self-assured. She didn’t throw in any ballads to show off the power of her voice because she doesn’t need to prove herself to anyone. And she didn’t need to say anything beyond, “Thank you, Arizona” to make her points.