Anymore for me, the Super Bowl halftime shows aren't about musical performances. They're some form of validation. One might argue that the Super Bowl itself isn't actually about sport but affirmation that the winning team is the best football enterprise [machine] in the nation.
I don't know if that really fits Rihanna, though. Yes, her multi-leveled crimson and white spectacle last night seemed to be the singer / cosmetics tycoon's statement about the vitality of her brand, which some might argue [but not aloud] has more swag(ger) than Beyonce'. But there seemed to be something else going on.
Decked out in yards and yards of red nylon fabric, baby bump protruding, Rihanna lightly stepped through her hits. Scores of hooded male and female dancers fanned out above and below her flying platform and around the midfield stage she commanded.
It was a feast of stagecraft and sound design -- but they've all become that, haven't they? What makes 2023's different from 2022's (besides last year's being more of a "we're still here" reunion by Dr. Dre and company) is the personality being promoted.
Rihanna has won nine Grammy's and her song for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has been nominated for an Oscar. She works with everybody who's anybody in hip-hop and her Fenty Beauty is worth an estimated $3 billion.
To my mind, Rihanna didn't need to book the halftime show for reassurance, she doesn't need the fame or the money. She will never be broke and will probably only be idle when she chooses to be.
Even here in the cheap seats, she is clearly an exceptional woman, in the midst of her second pregnancy, with phenomenal drive, making a provocative, life-affirming statement in an international broadcast: I got it all -- can you handle that?
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