For the first time, Apple Music, the NFL and Roc Nation are teaming up for the Super Bowl halftime show Sunday.
Driving the news: The highly anticipated halftime show featuring Rihanna marks her first return to the live music stage in seven years.
One of the biggest pop artists of the past two decades, she has been scarce in the music scene since her 2016 album "Anti."
Meanwhile, Rihanna made the Forbes’ Billionaires List in April 2022.
What they’re saying: Rihanna spoke Thursday at the Apple Music press conference about being asked to do the show three months after having her son.
“When you become a mom there’s something that happens where you feel like you can take on the world and can do anything,” she said.
“The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world. As scary as it was, because I haven’t been on stage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all. It’s important for me to do this year. It’s important for my son to see that.”
Between the lines: Apple Music released a trailer for the performance on Thursday, featuring “Rihanna Drive” in Barbados, the singer’s birthplace.
The music streaming service is inviting fans to experience the pop star’s catalog with their “Spatial Audio” feature, sing along with Apple Music Sing, tune in to Apple Music Radio for commentary and a recap show Monday following the game.
For Rihanna, who already has nearly 250 million followers on Twitter and Instagram, the Super Bowl performance is her chance to return to her music roots and reconnect with her audience after years away from the stage. (She did appear in her partner A$AP Rocky’s May 2022 music video). It’s also yet another collaboration with Jay-Z, whose Roc Nation entered into a long-term partnership with the NFL in 2019 as its Live Music Entertainment Strategists.
And like Super Bowl commercials, halftime shows don’t come cheap—productions can cost north of $10 million dollars. For The Weeknd’s 2021 halftime show, he spent $7 million of his own money to make sure it fit his vision, and a source close to Dr. Dre said that the rapper and producer also spent around $7 million on his show last year. Much as the previous longtime sponsor, Pepsi, had done in the past, the NFL and Apple Music are expected to foot the bill for Rihanna’s performance.Watch video here