Pink and white—conveying fireplace and blankness—had been such good colours for Rihanna to strobe at us tonight. Over 18 years within the highlight, the singer has left little doubt that she’s a lady of depth and vary, with wild fascinations and gut-held convictions and a wealthy private life. However by now, we must 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 an alternative give us blazing-hot surfaces. She’ll insist that angle and vogue is sufficient, as a result of it may be, as a result of that is pop.
So nobody must be stunned by what her Tremendous 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 way of exertion. Some have accomplished so by sending messages. Many have failed, or not less than flailed, within the course of. However Rihanna wished us mesmerized by the factor itself, by the photographs and the sounds, and she or he 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 Higher Have My Cash” 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. Excessive-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 all the motion onto one vertical airplane, drawing consideration to the efficiency’s elementary nature as a display screen occasion taking place in a stadium.
After letting our eyes alter to the circus, Rihanna did one thing necessary: 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 had been seeing too critically. When it regarded like she was simply barely making an attempt to hit the choreography, or when it appeared like she was dueting with a backing observe, that’s as a result of she was. Irony and insouciance will be distancing qualities in a efficiency, however right here they had been a form of earnestness.
The pops of character and shrugs of imperfection additionally had been important as a result of they broke up a pageant of precision. Rihanna’s dancers, modeling the modern 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 way of a number of anthemic hits: “We Discovered Love,” “Umbrella,” Ye’s “The entire Lights.” The continuity was numbing at instances, particularly because of the predominance of EDM pop and midtempo singalongs. However when the strident rhythm was interrupted by one thing lithe and syncopated —“Work,” “Wild Ideas,” “Pour It Up”—it gave a enjoyable likelihood 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 essentially the most anticipated halftime efficiency of all time. As soon as one of the crucial prolific working hitmakers, Rihanna put her music profession totally on mute after 2016’s Anti, and nothing about this Tremendous Bowl suggests she’s hurrying into a brand new chapter. However she gave us what made so many individuals love her within the first place, together with dignity the place a lot of mass tradition gives solely desperation. Essentially the most transferring second got here on the finish, when the music had stopped, and she or he thanked the viewers, regarded round, and smiled. Rihanna was excessive within the air, and she or he felt as near us as she’ll ever be.
