During a press conference held on Thursday by Apple Music, the official sponsor for the Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show, the Barbados-born superstar spoke about preparing for the career-defining performance at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
“Sunday, now that’s the one. I’ve been so focused on the Super Bowl I totally forgot that my birthday’s coming up. I totally forgot about Valentine’s Day,” the Grammy winner, 34, told Apple Music host Nadeska Alexis.
Rihanna had previously turned down headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show in support of NFL player Colin Kaepernick‘s peaceful protests against police brutality.
“It feels like it could have only been now. I mean, when I first got the call to do it again this year, I was like, ‘You sure? I’m three months postpartum. Should I be making major decisions like this right now? I might regret this,'” she said.
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“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, and the Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world,” added Rihanna. “So, as scary as that was… there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all, and it’s important for me to do this this year. It’s important for representation. It’s important for my son to see that.”
While she was tight-lipped about what’s to come in the performance, Rihanna admitted that choosing which songs to sing “was the biggest challenge,” as she’s gone through “probably about 39 versions of the setlist.”
“That was the hardest, hardest part — deciding how to maximize 13 minutes but also celebrate. That’s what this show is gonna be — it’s gonna be a celebration of my catalog in the best way that we could’ve put it together,” teased Rihanna. “You’re trying to cram 17 years of work into 13 minutes, so it’s difficult. Some songs we have to lose because of that, and that’s gonna be okay, but I think we did a pretty good job of narrowing it down.”
