For most people, the best part of the Super Bowl is the actual football. For me, it’s the halftime show. Every year there has been an interesting performance put together by a wide variety of artists. This year’s performer was Rihanna. Before the actual show, there was all kinds of speculation around the set list and performance. Many opinions shared on the internet surrounded which songs they wanted her to play.
I’m gonna be completely honest, I don’t think the intro of the performance was as iconic as everyone is saying it is. The most iconic part of Rihanna’s performance was her basically announcing her second pregnancy after showing off her new baby bump. She opened with “B*tch Better Have My Money,” and to me it was just kinda basic. Considering Rihanna’s discography, there were other fan favorites she could’ve played that would’ve made the opening ten times better. Like hello? Disturbia? The rest of the set list included; “Where Have You Been,” “Only Girl (In the World),” “We Found Love,” “Rude Boy,” “Work,” “Wild Thoughts,” “Pour It Up,” “All Of The Lights,” “Run This Town,” “Umbrella,” and “Diamonds.” First things first, this was not a bad setlist at all. I think she picked a variety of songs–even some that weren’t exactly expected–that many fans were eager to hear. Almost all of them are extremely well known, but what else would you expect? There’s a reason they’re in her top ten. The transition from one song to the next was immaculate and Rihanna’s vocals were on point the whole performance. She always manages to sound the same live as she does in her songs. It’s impressive. Now a lot of people might disagree with me on this, but I actually thought the floating stages were cool. There wasn’t much else of anything going on when it came to stage design, so I’ll give her some credit for the floating stages. The idea was there.
Now here comes my favorite part, the things I didn’t like. Starting off, all of the dancers and their outfits. Two things went through my mind when I first saw them; “Are those marshmallows?” and “Oh, they’re wearing hazmat suits.” Like what exactly was the vision? Whatever it was, I’m not vibing with it. Rihanna can pull almost anything off. The red ensemble she wore for this performance was fitting for her especially since it highlighted her baby bump. As for the rest of them, just no. The choreography and energy from the dancers wasn’t entirely bad, however; why were we griddying? I know you guys saw that too. Anyways, the energy of the whole performance felt like it was dialed back to a four out of ten. Specifically, the energy was lacking from Rihanna herself. I get that the lack of energy might be from her being pregnant and all, but from the videos I saw of her after the halftime show, she had more energy in them than in her own performance. The whole show–besides a few parts–felt blah. In all honesty, I was a little bored. During multiple songs, she had the chance to bring out a special guest. For example, “We Found Love,” Calvin Harris; “Work,” Drake; and “All Of The Lights,” Kanye. (Yeah I’m aware his name is now Ye, but considering how controversial he’s been I don’t care enough to call him that.) I think if she brought out a special guest it would have made the whole show much better and a lot of people would have praised the performance more. Finally, going back to the setlist. Some songs a lot of people were hoping for such as, “Pon De Replay,” “Disturbia,” and “Don’t Stop The Music,” weren’t played. Which was disappointing, but I still think we got a fairly hype setlist. If I had to rate the whole show compared to other halftime shows, I’d give it a solid 6/10. I love Rihanna, but it was just disappointingly boring. Definitely not a Nail, but not 100% a fail.