Celebrity

Twitter Was So Here For Rihanna's Super Bowl Halftime Performance

RiRi was the game’s true MVP.

by Brad Witter
PHOENIX, ARIZONA - FEBRUARY 09: Rihanna speaks onstage during the Super Bowl LVII Pregame & Apple Mu...
Mike Coppola/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

If you watched the Super Bowl LVII for Rihanna's performance, you did not come away disappointed. After the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles retired to their locker rooms, Rihanna took the field for the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show, kicking off her set with “Bitch Better Have My Money.” Celebrities and fans on Twitter were here for every banger that followed — RiRi showed everyone exactly who “Run This Town” tonight.

While promoting her halftime gig last week, Rihanna discussed the setlist she’d put together for her performance, which had to last exactly 13 minutes. “That was the hardest, hardest part, deciding how to maximize 13 minutes but also celebrate,” the nine-time Grammy winner told reporters, per Rolling Stone.

“That’s what that show is going to be. It’s going to be a celebration of my catalog in the best way we could have put it together,” she continued. “You’re trying to cram 17 years of work into 13 minutes, so it’s difficult. Some songs we had to lose because of that, and that’s going to be OK, but I think we did a pretty good job of narrowing it down. There are probably about 39 versions of the setlist right now.” Based on Twitter’s reaction, it seems like she chose the right one.

Though Rihanna performed hits like “Umbrella” and “Run This Town” — and collaborator Jay-Z was in the house — she didn’t need any surprise special guests to give viewers exactly what they came for. Some couldn’t help but wonder what some of them, namely Kanye West, must have been thinking about not being included.

Many fans speculated on Twitter that Rihanna had used the performance to make a sly pregnancy announcement, about nine months after giving birth to their first child. (She did tease a surprise special guest last week, after all.) Following the performance, the singer’s rep confirmed she is expecting baby number two.

Other fans compared the stage design to classic video games, while still more reveled in how glorious the Rihanna Bowl truly was.

Overall, fans seemed to agree that Rihanna won the Super Bowl this year.