Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime performance is still being talked about as it was her first performance in 7 years. However, a few years ago Rihanna said in an interview that she didn’t want to perform at the Super Bowl because of the treatment of Colin Kaepernick and didn’t want to be considered a sellout. However, in a recent interview, she addressed her past remarks and explained why she finally decided to do the performance.
In a new interview with British Vogue, Rih said that becoming a mother changed her outlook on everything and that despite there still needing to be a lot of mending between the Black community and the NFL, representation is important and to have two Black halftime shows back to back would send a “strong message.”
“There’s still a lot of mending to be done in my eyes,” Rihanna said, “but it’s powerful to break those doors, and have representation at such a high, high level and a consistent level. Two Super Bowls back-to-back, you know, representing the urban community, globally. It is powerful. It sends a really strong message.”
She continued: “Raising a young Black man is one of the scariest responsibilities in life. You’re like, ‘What am I leaving my kids to? This is the planet they’re gonna be living on?’ All of those things really start to hit differently.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Rihanna said revealed that she had been asked to perform at the Super Bowl every year for the last decade but turned it down. She had even been asked to the Super Bowl in Atlanta, but once again turned it down because of the NFL’s treatment of Colin Kaepernick. In her 2019 Vogue article, Rih said “I just couldn’t be a sellout. There’s things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way.”
Rihanna’s performance at Super Bowl LVII ended up being one of the biggest ever, with more people tuning in to see her performance than the actual game.
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