Red and white—conveying hearth and blankness—have been such good colours for Rihanna to strobe at us tonight. Over 18 years within the highlight, the singer has left little question that she’s a lady of depth and vary, with wild fascinations and gut-held convictions and a wealthy private life. But by now, we should always perceive that she’s by no means going to point out us all of that—as a result of no artist ever might, and since she’s not going to bullshit us in any other case. Rihanna will as a substitute give us blazing-hot surfaces. She’ll insist that angle and trend is sufficient, as a result of it may be, as a result of that is pop.
So nobody ought to be shocked by what her Super Bowl efficiency was: an act of radical minimalism, seasoned with lovable humanity. It was austere but scruffy, flat but actual. Some halftime performers have dazzled by means of exertion. Some have executed so by sending messages. Many have failed, or no less than flailed, within the course of. But Rihanna wished us mesmerized by the factor itself, by the photographs and the sounds, and he or she largely succeeded. Plus, she graciously implied a bonbon of non-public revelation: She’s pregnant once more!
The present began abruptly, with the digicam shut on her face and the queasy beat of “Bitch Better Have My Money” lurching to life. The disorientation match with the place she was: up within the air, on one of many many suspended platforms that’d ascend and descend all through the present, arranging like stairs or championship pedestals. High-flying feats are all the time cool, and whereas different halftime reveals have featured levitating-superhero illusions, Rihanna opted for industrial-chic honesty. The platforms aligned the entire motion onto one vertical aircraft, drawing consideration to the efficiency’s elementary nature as a display screen occasion occurring in a stadium.
After letting our eyes modify to the circus, Rihanna did one thing vital: She put one hand behind her head and bared her enamel, like a demon on a trucker’s windshield. Thank goodness she introduced her sharpest weapons, her facial expressions, into battle. She rolled her eyes and smirked. She powdered her face (a enterprise plug so shameless it circled into being noble) and touched her crotch (dare you be offended by the miracle of life?). These moments advised us to not take something we have been seeing too significantly. When it appeared like she was simply barely making an attempt to hit the choreography, or when it appeared like she was dueting with a backing monitor, that’s as a result of she was. Irony and insouciance might be distancing qualities in a efficiency, however right here they have been a type of earnestness.
The pops of persona and shrugs of imperfection additionally have been important as a result of they broke up a pageant of precision. Rihanna’s dancers, modeling the revolutionary use of hooded puffers as crop tops, wobbled and swayed as one organism. When she sang, she did so clearly and strongly because the setlist pounded by means of a choice of anthemic hits: “We Found Love,” “Umbrella,” Ye’s “All of the Lights.” The continuity was numbing at occasions, particularly because of the predominance of EDM pop and midtempo singalongs. But when the strident rhythm was interrupted by one thing lithe and syncopated —“Work,” “Wild Thoughts,” “Pour It Up”—it gave a enjoyable probability for Rihanna’s nuclear-cleanup crew to register the change with its our bodies.
Strictly talking, the present didn’t meet the expectations that had made it probably the most anticipated halftime efficiency of all time. Once one of the crucial prolific working hitmakers, Rihanna put her music profession totally on mute after 2016’s Anti, and nothing about this Super Bowl suggests she’s hurrying into a brand new chapter. But she gave us what made so many individuals love her within the first place, together with dignity the place a lot of mass tradition presents solely desperation. The most shifting second got here on the finish, when the music had stopped, and he or she thanked the viewers, appeared round, and smiled. Rihanna was excessive within the air, and he or she felt as near us as she’ll ever be.