NEW YORK –
Rihanna will be the center of attention at the Super Bowl halftime show in February.
The singer, who declined to appear on the 2019 Super Bowl halftime show in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, will officiate the 2023 Super Bowl, the NFL announced Sunday along with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and Apple Music. Rihanna posted a picture on Instagram showing an outstretched arm holding an NFL football.
“Rihanna is a generational talent, a woman from humble beginnings who has exceeded expectations at every turn,” said Jay-Z, whose Roc Nation is executive producer on the show, in a statement. “A person born on the small island of Barbados who went on to become one of the most prominent artists of all time. Self-made in business and entertainment.”
The Super Bowl takes place on February 12 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. After years of sponsorship from Pepsi, the upcoming halftime show will be sponsored by Apple Music.
Rihanna previously said she turned down a similar opportunity for the 2019 Super Bowl, which ended up being chaired by Maroon 5. Back then, many artists expressed their support for Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, who protested police brutality against blacks and minorities by kneeling during the national anthem in 2016.
“I wouldn’t dare. For what?” Rihanna told Vogue in 2019. “Who benefits? Not my people. I just couldn’t be a sellout. I couldn’t be an enabler. There are things within this organization that I completely disagree with, and I do had no intention of serving them in any way,” she said of the league.
Kaepernick accused the NFL of collusion to keep him out of the league in a case that was eventually settled in early 2019.
In 2019, the NFL partnered with Roc Nation (which Rihanna manages) to help select cast members for the Super Bowl and strategize for the halftime show. The highly acclaimed halftime show 2022 featured Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and Mary J Blige.
With more than 250 million records sold worldwide, Rihanna is one of the best-selling artists of all time. Her last album was Anti in 2016. Rihanna last appeared in public at the Grammy Awards in 2018.
In the years since, Rihanna has occasionally teased her music return. Earlier this year she had her first child with rapper ASAP Rocky.